When SMU alumni Dillon Baxter and Maxime Blandin met on the university’s golf team, they knew they would start a business together.
“You always came to me with ideas,” Baxter said to Blandin. “So I always had in the back of my mind that he had an idea that we should probably pursue together.”
Baxter grew up in the Texas Hill Country. Blandin grew up on the French-speaking Caribbean island of Martinique. Worlds apart, but the friends noticed the same problems.
“I had seen firsthand many problems with litter from the rivers in New Braunfels,” said Baxter. “As a kid, we saw plastic in the water on every single beach,” said Blandin.
Your business plan was hatched at the bottom of a drink.
“Basically I sipped a drink one day and had a paper straw,” said Blandin. “I said to myself, do you know why no one has found a better alternative?”
The couple researched the problem and alternative solutions, then launched PlantSwitch in February 2020. The company makes sustainable, disposable straws and utensils from a fibrous by-product from tequila production.
“By pulling it from the agave plant, you can make something that works similarly to what you would expect from a traditional plastic product,” said Baxter.
There is an important difference between plastic and PlantSwitch straws.
“You can throw it in the trash, throw it in the landfill and it will collapse,” Blandin said.
Every year around 8 million tons of plastic waste end up in the oceans and pollute the coasts.
“It’s obviously a massive problem, not only environmentally but also economically,” said Baxter. “The blame has been placed on the consumer for far too long … it really starts at the beginning of the supply chain. You have to take responsibility; from the raw materials you source to the end product you create. “
PlantSwitch straws are used in dozens of DFW restaurants and bars. The company plans to add more single-use items to its inventory.
“We try to equate sustainability with quality,” said Baxter. “Our generation has to do something about it,” said Blandin.
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