Kai Smith, founder of Maine Coasters & Bio-Boards and member of Biobased Maine, with wife Mary-Erin Casale. (Photo: Dave Dostie)

Congratulations to Biobased Maine member Kai Smith, founder of Maine Coasters & Bioboards, for winning the 2018 Business Leadership Award from the Environmental Health Strategy Center at the organization’s Celebration for Our Healthy Future last week.

With a goal of connecting Maine’s historic pulp and paper industry to the growing craft beer market, Kai founded Maine Coasters & Bio-Boards in 2017 to manufacture biodegradable and sustainable beverage coasters and bio-based packaging that incorporates unique materials such as Maine soft wood pulp and spent grain from breweries. The company intends to service companies large and small, within the beer, food, and retail sectors in Maine as well as internationally.

Indeed, the company is already garnering interest from a major international brand.

The Forecaster reports that Maine Coasters & Bio-Boards was recently contacted by “a marketing campaign for a major, worldwide brewery,” Kai told the newspaper. “And, we have some leads for supplying unfinished sheets of coasters to a few mills around New England. It’s early on, but very exciting to see the product gathering momentum.”

Maine Coaster prototypes made for Allagash using their spent grains

Moreover, as Biobased Maine executive director Charlotte Mace pointed out, Kai’s business is not only about making sustainable products, but it may also help create sustainable, high-paying manufacturing jobs in rural Maine communities.

As Kai told The Forecaster, in Maine, “we have great downtowns and great local businesses. We’re also home to some of the best breweries and beers in the world. When I think about Maine’s heritage in the paper industry, I see a perfect match with beer coasters.”

 

 

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