"At the end of 2019, I started a tea company. It's called Alaya Tea. We do loose leaf organic tea, and we source as regeneratively as possible, but the packaging was a real headache. We didn't want to do glass because it's too difficult to ship. Aluminum has its own challenges, and the other option is plastic stand up pouches, and you can get a lot of them that are made out of recycled plastics. But we decided to go down the compostable route. Now, even compostable is not a hundred percent solution at the moment. The supply chain of compostables is also very complex. And there's some good compostables, and there's some not so good compostables. And it was a real experience to see what it's like for businesses when they're trying to figure out these solutions. You start to empathize and you really start to understand that this is not easy stuff to figure out because, yes, the materials can exist out there. And yes, there are innovations happening with seaweed and mushrooms and all these other things, but does it work for a business?"

Esha Chhabra has written for national and international publications over the last 15 years, focusing on global development, the environment, and the intersection of business and impact. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, The Guardian, and other publications. She is the author of Working to Restore: Harnessing the Power of Business to Heal the Earth.

www.eshachhabra.com
www.beacon.org/Working-to-Restore-P2081.aspx

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