Start Your Own: Plastic Free Cutlery Company with Conscious Cutlery

Hillary Huff is an entrepreneur, artist and avid traveler. She is the founder of Conscious Cutlery and has shared her story into setting up a company, what she looks for in collaborations and the role that social media plays in her success.

You can find out more about Hillary and her cutlery on her website.

Hillary spent the bulk of her twenties traveling through South East Asia while growing her e-commerce jewelry business, before settling in Lake Tahoe where she currently lives with her awesome husband, two beautiful children, the world’s coolest dog and a hamster named Daryl. She is the founder of Conscious Cutlery and is grateful to combine her love of our planet with her background skills and knowledge of the e-commerce world. Most days you can find her hiking in the Sierras or skiing when she isn’t spending time with her family and working on her businesses.

What’s Your Why?

The Why is simple but also devastatingly true, our planet is in the middle of a plastic crisis. We need to make moves very quickly to solve the problem we’ve created. I’ve had an e-commerce jewelry business for over 10 years but recently wanted to shift gears to feel like I was part of something bigger and was working towards helping our beautiful planet. At that time, I was taking my own cutlery with me wherever I went and found myself turning down plastic utensils and straws multiple times a day. I started to wonder why everyone doesn’t carry their own set of reusable utensils everywhere they go? Conscious Cutlery was quickly born.

What does Conscious Cutlery stand for?

Conscious Cutlery has a very simple mission statement to help reduce plastic consumption and raise awareness about the plastic emergency we are currently facing on our planet. We sell more than a product, we work to raise awareness so consumers realize the negative impact the disposable culture has had on this planet.

What’s your competitive advantage?

I think our advantage is there are no other products like it on the market. Everyone is focused on plastic straws right now, which is great, but I developed a full cutlery set, which people use more often. How many times a day do you typically use a straw? Now, think about how many times you use a fork or spoon?

What are you most excited by?

I’m most excited by people’s responses to the product. Most people immediately understand it, they don’t have to be told why they should use it and it makes me so excited to know that people want to be involved in a solution. I’m also very excited about our involvement with 1% for the Planet. I’m excited to build a business model around sustainability and giving back.

What role has social media played in your success?

Social media is a crucial marketing tool for my business. Without it, I would have to spend huge amounts on marketing, whereas social media allows me to reach a large demographic of people for free. Even paid ads through social media are affordable and work well to convert users to customers. What I love most about social media is the role it plays for raising awareness. I am constantly re-posting about the plastic crisis on our planet, information that otherwise might not appear in traditional news outlets.

When partnering with brands and bloggers, what criteria do you look for?

I really enjoy bloggers who are relatable and insert a raw human element in their story, meaning they aren’t always perfect. They discuss the trials and errors of what it means to be human. I like people who are open about their own struggles, to help remind us we’re all human and trying our best but no one is perfect. For Brands, I look for companies that put our planet before their profits and promote conscious consumerism.

How do you want people to feel when they use your products?

I want people to feel like they are making a small difference in a huge problem. I want them to feel pro-active, to analysis their daily life and look at other ways they can be pro-active to reduce plastic waste.

Wherever you go take it with you because plastic islands SUCK.

What’s been your biggest challenge to date and how did you overcome it?

Trying to do it all and not having enough time. I still haven’t overcome it, I just sleep less and less these days!

The app you cannot live without?

I use Canva almost daily for my business. It’s quick and easy to develop all sorts of marketing tools such as website banners, fliers or business cards. I was spending a fortune on graphic designs before I discovered Canva.

Read more about Hillary’s fight against plastic on her website | Instagram.