Narrator: These little clay
vessels might be the oldest disposable cups in the world. Evidence of their use in the
Indian subcontinent goes back 5,000 years. That's the end of the Stone Age. Traditionally, they're meant

to be sipped from and tossed out. The cups are called kulhads or kulhars or bhar or shikora,
depending on who you ask. Whatever you call them,
the convenient cups have nearly always been
the preferred vessel

for tea shops throughout the country. Enter single-use plastic and paper. Today, more and more
tea shops are giving up their traditional kulhad
in favor of alternatives, which means less income
for kulhad craftsmen. Narrator: Cheaper prices make

to businesses that can end up going through thousands of cups a day. But proponents of the kulhad say that plastic is bad for your health, bad for the environment, and bad for business. The reality is a bit
more nuanced than that.

Is the simple kulhad really
better than a plastic cup? And how long will it stick around? We went to Kolkata, India, to see how traditional clay teacups still stand despite the rise of paper and plastic. Jayaprakash Prajapati's workday
lasts longer than the sun's.

From 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., he and his family make about
2,500 kulhads each day. He estimates he's made
over 10 million cups since he started 25 years ago. Narrator: Their design
is deceptively simple.

Unpainted, handleless
vessels for drinking tea. Narrator: It's a design that's been
perfected over thousands of years by generations of craftsmen in India. Narrator: It's hard, relentless work. Narrator: After unloading the
previous day's batch from the oven,

workers prepare the clay for
today's array of kulhads. Narrator: They use a wire and their feet to slice and mix the clay,
evening out its consistency and making it easier to work with. This clay, fresh from the ground,

is the only ingredient
in Jayaprakash's kulhads. And it gets more
expensive year after year. Narrator: He has no choice but
to purchase from local sellers at whatever price the potters' union sets. The cost of importing clay would eat into

what little profit he already makes, and he can't use just any soil. Narrator: Before it's ready
to shape into kulhads, bits of stone and grass need
to be removed from the clay. Pebbles could cause the
cups to explode in the oven,

and grass could burn away and leave holes. Narrator: Traditionally,
it's men who make kulhads, but everyone in
Jayaprakash's household works to keep up with demand. Narrator: The tea shops he
supplies expect deliveries daily.

Narrator: At its current
size, Jayaprakash's workshop can only manage to produce
around 2,500 cups a day. This makes it difficult to
create any sort of back stock, meaning the workshop has to be
in perpetual production mode.

Narrator: The air-dried kulhads
are laid out in a series of tight concentric circles
and fired overnight. Narrator: This formation efficiently bakes up to 10,000 kulhads at a time. But right now, it's monsoon season, 

which means even after
a night in the oven, the kulhads might not be dry. Narrator: Setbacks like this make
it even harder for Jayaprakash to keep up with the already
overwhelming demand. Narrator: Paper and
plastic cups are cheaper 

and more convenient than kulhads, making them an appealing alternative to tea shops operating
on razor-thin margins. Vendors like Kashinath Kole
buy cups from Jayaprakash for about half a rupee apiece. He can get paper cups for close
to a fifth of a rupee apiece. 

Despite the markup, most
of the 100 to 150 cups of tea he sells each day come in kulhads. Narrator: Kulhad proponents are adamant that tea sipped from clay tastes better. Narrator: With plastic, 
it's more than flavor 

that seeps into your tea. Numerous studies have shown that
hot liquids in plastic cups, as well as paper cups coated with plastic, can leach microplastics and a chemical called
bisphenol A from the container. Even in fine amounts, bisphenol A, or BPA, 

has been linked to cancer,
reproductive issues, problems with brain development, and many other diseases and dysfunctions. Research on microplastics is limited, but they're associated
with a similar laundry list of potential issues. There's no evidence that drinking from a kulhad
has any negative effect 

on a person's health. But what about making a kulhad? Narrator: The kulhad might
not be as eco-friendly as it's chalked up to be, either. Kulhad proponents claim that because the cups are made from earth, 

they are easily biodegradable. But there haven't been any
formal studies about this. Adding moisture to air-dried
clay easily dissolves it, but fired clay is chemically
changed into a more durable material. The reason we even know
kulhads have been used 

for 5,000 years is that modern
archaeologists were able to find surviving examples of them. Some craftsmen will bake their kulhads at lower temperatures to make the final product
more easily disposable. But most kulhads aren't composted 

or handled in any specific way. When he's done drinking, Sumit's kulhad will go into the trash. Narrator: Despite the immense challenges, Jayaprakash is determined
to keep making kulhads. He hopes to make more profit
in order to improve conditions 

and hire new craftsmen. Narrator: Kulhad prices
are set by a union, so Jayaprakash has no control over them, and if prices get too high, tea shops might turn away
from them completely. The Indian government has made efforts 

to support kulhad craftsmen in the past. Like in 2020, when the
railways minister announced that all of India's trains and 7,000 stations would serve
tea exclusively in kulhads. The initiative started
with only 400 stations. 

More joined over the years, but progress appears to have stalled. Despite initiatives like these, kulhad craftsmen are dwindling. Narrator: Jayaprakash says he doesn't feel like he's competing with other craftsmen. Narrator: Plastic has already taken over

a previous arm of his business. Narrator: His family has
relied on this workshop for almost a hundred years, but its future is uncertain.

Can India’s 5,000-Year-Old Disposable Clay Tea Cups Compete With Single-Use Plastic?

What you want to know about business. 

Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day: https://www.businessinsider.com 
Business Insider on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessinsider
Business Insider on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insiderbusiness
Business Insider on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/businessinsider
Business Insider on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/Business_Insider/5319643143
Business Insider on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessinsider

If you have a permissions or licensing request, please connect with our partners at PARS International who will be able to provide you with an accurate quote for the overall usage rights that you’re interested in. A representative from PARS will contact you shortly after filling out this request form: https://www.parsintl.com/publications/insider/


Can India’s 5,000-Year-Old Disposable Clay Tea Cups Compete With Single-Use Plastic?

Scripts