Fellow Portrait
Marina Tran-Vu
EQUO
EQUO is a sustainable brand that provides easy alternatives to single-use plastic, including straws, utensils, food containers, and other items made from materials like sugarcane and coffee.
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South Asia and Central Asia
Vietnam
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Fellow
2024
Discarded plastic endangers ecosystems and humans
The average person uses about 40 thousand straws in a lifetime, representing nearly 32 pounds of plastic. The plastic problem quickly multiplies when accounting for the world’s population and for other single-use items such as dishware, drinkware, and utensils. Currently available non-plastic alternatives have downsides: paper disintegrates and consumes trees; metal requires washing; edible products divert food sources.
The world’s discarded plastic not only threatens ecosystems but harms humans, killing up to a million people each year as they become victims of such events as flooding caused by plastic-clogged waterways, according to a research report from relief and development agency Tearfund.
When Marina Tran-Vu’s nephew was a toddler, she witnessed him picking up discarded drinking straws and bottles because he thought they were toys. Her desire to address this small problem as well as the larger challenge of leaving him a better world motivated her to start EQUO.
You can use our product once and throw it away without worrying about where it ends up. It’s the easiest thing to not think about. Behavior is very hard to change, so we're trying to take all those difficulties out of the equation.
EQUO makes sustainability easy
For individual consumers, the company’s products make choosing sustainability as easy as sticking with their current routines–no more soggy straws, remembering to bring a reusable straw, or pangs of guilt when throwing away plastic after wondering whether it can be recycled. Because EQUO’s products are home compostable or reusable, they minimize the impact of plastic waste even in communities without well-developed waste management infrastructures.
“What we're doing doesn't sound novel,” Marina says. “We’re making straws and forks from grass, rice, or coconut. It may not sound exciting, but we're transforming a commoditized category that no one cares about and getting people to make conscious choices within this category. And if they can make a conscious choice about the straw or fork that they use, then we can get them to make real behavior change.”
EQUO doesn’t force consumers to use a material with limitations around color, size, use, or disposability, “We don't ask you to learn or change your actions or behavior. We want you to keep going about your day in a way that is better for the environment with easy, no-brainer switches so simple you may not even notice them–even though Mother Earth does.”
We’re replacing at least four or five of the top ten worst single-use plastic items in the world with our sustainable alternatives. These are small solutions that will have a big impact collectively.
Sustainable products help consumers “kick the plastic”
EQUO’s products have already replaced millions of pieces of plastic in the environment. “We want our product to be in at least 50 different countries in the next five to ten years,” Marina says. “We’re proud we've been able to convert businesses and individuals from paper or plastic to our products, things they would have never considered before.”
Since its founding, the company has prevented approximately 30 million pieces of plastic from entering the environment and aims to have an even bigger impact by influencing consumer attitudes and behaviors that will ripple into the future. Marina adds, “We're seeing a lot of our impact in that we're inspiring the next generation to build sustainable startups.”
By helping consumers “keep the convenience, kick the plastic,” EQUO is chipping away at the mountain of plastic waste plaguing the global community.
I worked for a lot of big brands, making millions for them. I wanted to see if I could build something on my own.
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