A kulhad is a biodegradable, disposable clay cup used in India by food vendors to serve hot beverages like chai and some desserts like yogurt. The cups have been excavated from the Indus Valley from as far back as the end of the Stone Age, 5,000 years ago. They are generally unglazed and unpainted so the hot liquid will seep into the clay, which is said to affect the flavor of the beverages giving it a more earthy note. While synthetic materials like plastic and paper have started replacing these clay cups as they are cheaper and more convenient for vendors to acquire, the clay cups still persist in India today. The cost per kulhad can vary but generally sits around 1 rupee, or .01 USD. Each kulhad is made by hand in harsh conditions that take a significant toll on the artisans. But proponents point to kulhads as the healthier, more environmentally friendly option, though the science isn't all there. We went inside a kulhad workshop outside of Kolkata to see how the traditional clay cup business is still standing.
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00:00These little clay vessels might be the oldest disposable cups in the world.
00:16Evidence of their use in the Indian subcontinent goes back
00:195,000 years. That's the end of the Stone Age.
00:25Traditionally, they're meant to be sipped from and tossed out.
00:30The cups are called koolhads or koolhars or ba or shikora, depending on who you ask.
00:38Whatever you call them, the convenient cups have nearly always been the preferred vessel
00:43for tea shops throughout the region. Enter single-use plastic and paper.
00:49Today, more and more tea shops are giving up their traditional koolhad
00:53in favor of alternatives, which means less income for koolhad craftsmen.
01:00Even if we work, our stomachs won't be able to take it.
01:03We won't be able to take care of our families either.
01:06Cheaper prices make plastic and paper appealing to businesses that can end up going through
01:11thousands of cups a day. But proponents of the koolhad say that plastic is bad for your health,
01:17bad for the environment, and bad for business. The reality is a bit more nuanced than that.
01:24Is the simple koolhad really better than a plastic cup? And how long will it stick around?
01:31We went to Calcutta, India to see how traditional clay teacups still stand
01:36despite the rise of paper and plastic.
01:43Jayaprakash Prajapati's workday lasts longer than the sun's.
01:47From 4 a.m. to 10 p.m., he and his family make about 2,500 koolhads each day.
01:59He estimates he's made over 10 million cups since he started 25 years ago.
02:05Their design is deceptively simple — unpainted, handle-less vessels for drinking tea.
02:17It's a design that's been perfected over thousands of years by generations of craftsmen in India.
02:24But it's not enough to make a koolhad.
02:26It's a design that's been perfected over thousands of years by generations of craftsmen in India.
02:34We've been making koolhads since our ancestors, and we're still making them.
02:42It's hard, relentless work.
02:56After unloading the previous day's batch from the oven,
02:59workers prepare the clay for today's array of koolhads.
03:05They use a wire and their feet to slice and mix the clay,
03:11evening out its consistency and making it easier to work with.
03:16This clay, fresh from the ground, is the only ingredient in Jayaprakash's koolhads.
03:22And it gets more expensive year after year.
03:35He has no choice but to purchase from local sellers at whatever price the potter's union sets.
03:41The cost of importing clay would eat into what little profit he already makes.
03:45And he can't use just any soil.
03:53Before it's ready to shape into koolhads, bits of stone and grass need to be removed from the clay.
03:59Pebbles could cause the cups to explode in the oven,
04:02and grass could burn away and leave holes.
04:08Traditionally, it's men who make koolhads.
04:12But everyone in Jayaprakash's household works to keep up with demand.
04:26The tea shops he supplies expect deliveries daily.
04:33At its current size, Jayaprakash's workshop can only manage to produce around 2,500 cups a day.
04:48This makes it difficult to create any sort of backstock,
04:51meaning the workshop has to be in perpetual production mode.
05:03The air-dried koolhads are laid out in a series of tight, concentric circles and fired overnight.
05:19This formation efficiently bakes up to 10,000 koolhads at a time.
05:32But right now, it's monsoon season,
05:34which means even after a night in the oven, the koolhads might not be dry.
05:51Setbacks like this make it even harder for Jayaprakash to keep up with the already overwhelming demand.
06:03Paper and plastic cups are cheaper and more convenient than koolhads,
06:08making them an appealing alternative to tea shops operating on razor-thin margins.
06:15Vendors like Kashi Nath Khole buy cups from Jayaprakash for about half a rupee apiece.
06:21He can get paper cups for a price of Rs. 1,000 a piece.
06:24Despite the markup, most of the 100 to 150 cups of tea he sells each day come in koolhads.
06:54Koolhad proponents are adamant that tea sipped from clay tastes better.
07:16With plastic, it's more than flavor that seeps into your tea.
07:20Numerous studies have shown that hot liquids in plastic cups,
07:24as well as paper cups coated with plastic,
07:27can leach microplastics and a chemical called bisphenol A from the container.
07:33Even in fine amounts, bisphenol A, or BPA, has been linked to cancer, reproductive issues,
07:41problems with brain development, and many other diseases and dysfunctions.
07:46Research on microplastics is limited,
07:49but they're associated with a similar laundry list of potential issues.
07:53There's no evidence that drinking from a koolhad has any negative effect on a person's health.
08:00But what about making a koolhad?
08:16How old is your father?
08:39The koolhad might not be as eco-friendly as it's chalked up to be, either.
08:44Koolhad proponents claim that because the cups are made from earth,
08:48they are easily biodegradable.
08:50But there haven't been any formal studies about this.
08:53Adding moisture to air-dried clay easily dissolves it.
08:57But fired clay is chemically changed into a more durable material.
09:02The reason we even know koolhads have been used for 5,000 years
09:06is that modern archaeologists were able to find surviving examples of them.
09:11Some craftsmen will bake their koolhads at lower temperatures
09:14to make the final product more easily disposable.
09:17But most koolhads aren't composted or handled in any specific way.
09:23When he's done drinking, Sumit's koolhad will go into the trash.
09:27Despite the immense challenges,
09:30Jaya Prakash is determined to keep making koolhads.
09:34He hopes to make more profit in order to improve conditions
09:38and hire new craftsmen.
09:58Koolhad prices are set by a union,
10:01so Jaya Prakash has no control over them.
10:04And if prices get too high,
10:05tea shops might turn away from them completely.
10:20The Indian government has made efforts to support koolhad craftsmen in the past.
10:25Like in 2020, when the railway's minister announced
10:27that all of India's trains and 7,000 stations
10:31would serve tea exclusively in koolhads.
10:34The initiative started with only 400 stations.
10:38More joined over the years, but progress appears to have stalled.
10:42Despite initiatives like these, koolhad craftsmen are dwindling.
10:55Jaya Prakash says he doesn't feel like he's competing with other craftsmen.
11:03Plastic has already taken out a previous arm of his business.
11:26His family has relied on this workshop for almost 100 years,
11:30but its future is uncertain.