About Us
Stay tray
I’m Kate Stewart, Founder, Managing Director of Stay Tray and mother to two beautiful young kids. Like many parents, I want the planet to be a better place for our kids. But where do you start?
The Spark
The Stay tray idea was sparked one day late 2017. I witnessed friends and workmates carrying their reusable coffee cups in disposable cardboard trays. It was painfully ironic, reusable coffee cups being carried in trays that got discarded at the end of each coffee run. The best case was that the cardboard trays be recycled and would still consume energy and water in the recycling process. At worst the cardboard trays would contribute to the 30% of paper waste not recycled and ends up in landfill each year.
What if we didn’t need cardboard trays anymore. Just like reusable coffee cups, we could have reusable carry trays?
The Motivation
It’s crazy when I think back on it. In 2017, I was commuting 3 hours each day Monday to Friday for my corporate job in Melbourne. I would leave at 5:00am and get home at 6:30pm at the earliest. During the week, the best I could hope for was to be home in time to put my kids to bed. The weekends were great, but it just wasn’t enough quality family time. I was determined to make a change.
What if I could spend more time with my kids and make a positive difference for the environment too?
So I left my secure corporate role of 17 years in the pursuit of something more fulfilling and more meaningful, something that would literally make a difference to people and the planet. Stay tray was born.
The Reusable Drinks Tray
Stay tray is made to be used everyday. I believe that when it comes to environmental sustainability, the little bit we do everyday matters. Because we are doing it together.
Stay tray was designed to reduce single use consumption of disposable plastic and cardboard trays.
There simply wasn’t a sustainable, versatile solution to be found, and therefore those individuals who were responsible / sustainably minded, were using their disposable options again and again. Stay tray not only intended to solve the single use problem, but it needed to be a great alternative, one that would compliment the reusable movement and encourage a behavioural shift.
Our mission is to encourage the use of reusable drink carriers. We deliver sustainable products that challenge the culture of single use.
Australian Made and owned
I am extremely proud to make Stay tray in Australia. I have worked really hard to achieve this. When the business first started out a conscious decision was made to support local Australian business and manufacture a great product right here in Australia.
In fact, all design, engineering and manufacture has been kept within a 60km radius of Stay Tray’s home on the Mornington Peninsula.
It would have been half the price to engineer and manufacture overseas. However it was extremely important for Stay Tray to support the incredibly talented designers, engineers and manufacturers right here in Australia.
Awards
In 2019, Stay tray was awarded Silver in the Packaging Innovation and Design Awards hosted by the Australianasian Institute of Packaging. I also developed and ran a successful Kickstarter Campaign to help raise funds to further expand Stay tray and design and manufacture a 2 Cup Stay tray right here in Australia.
Awards
In 2020, Stay Tray was awarded Winner in the Beverage Category of the WorldStar Packaging Awards in Germany.
