Education
Founder and CEO Antonio Di Meglio (Stern ’20) and Co-founder and Creative Director Echo Chen (Gallatin ’20) are current NYU undergrads who established SeaStraws in 2018 with Sophie Kennedy (CAS ’19) and several other NYU students. SeaStraws provides nationwide distributors and individual restaurants with disposable single-use products that minimize environmental impact. The company’s mission is to transform hospitality through sustainable alternatives. In September 2018, the University announced several sustainability initiatives, including its commitment to eliminate plastic straws in the dining halls—resulting in 1,140,000 fewer plastic straws in the waste stream annually. The SeaStraws team contacted the Office of Student Affairs to offer their products to NYU's dining services, and one month later, SeaStraws became the official straws supplier for all of NYU’s dining halls. The business relationship continues to this day. As of September 2019, SeaStraws has sold over 4.5 million paper straws, preventing the use of over 4,700 pounds of plastic. Visit the Conversations homepage at http://www.nyu.edu/president/conversations or contact us at conversations@nyu.edu.