This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Texas chapter.
You’ve probably sat in one at some point in your life. While playing video games until the wee hours of the morning or reading a new thriller novel, bean bag chairs have been revolutionized over the years into a worldwide furniture staple. Now, an Austin startup is shifting the purpose of the iconic chair from pure functionality to environmentally friendly. And the best part about the revolutionary bean bag chair company is that a Longhorn runs it.
Her name is Noa Belillti. And Green Beans is her baby, as she would call it. Green Beans, a bean bag chair company launched in Austin in January 2013, uses 100 percent recycled materials and provides comfort and back support for excited customers.
“It’s a product that I think people our age can be excited about, from kids to babies to expectant mothers, I even have some older ladies who really like certain designs that I do. It’s an all ages sort of thing,” says Noa, a senior music major at UT and co-operator of Green Beans. “They remember when bean bags originated and here is one that now they can sit in with back and neck support. So they’re thinking, ‘Oh my god, my bean bag is totally getting a face lift!'”
Hand sewn in Venice Beach, California but assembled in Austin, Texas the bean bag chairs are stuffed with recycled polystyrene filling and covered with
organic stretchy fabrics such as hemp and cotton. In addition, Green Beans donates 18 percent of every purchase to a nonprofit of the customer’s choice. Everything is done grassroots style from the fabrics to the designs to the stitching.
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Noa’s found a way to take something that is super abundant and not biodegradable in the environment today—polystyrene, a bi-product of Styrofoam, and give it a new beneficial purpose.
“Styrofoam is continuously being produced, so I go to these factories and collect the foam, some for a fee and depending on how environmentally friendly and conscious these factories are, some of the polystyrene is recycled,” Noa says. “It’s the recycled polystyrene that we are reusing in the bean bags. Something that is already used for its purpose, and the Green Beans chairs are finding a way for it to be used indefinitely in our world as furniture. Instead of producing more polystyrene, to make more pillows or beanbags, let’s use what we already have because there is too much of it in the environment and it’s not going anywhere.”
Noa came to UT, specifically the music capital of the world, from Ohio to pursue a career in music. As a music major in the Butler School of Music, she currently sings with the three-piece funk band, Hector Ward And The Big Time, that has 16 years of experience in the Austin music scene under its belt. Between a full course load, music, performances and Green Beans, Noa is always on the go balancing her passions for music and her business.
“I’ll be out there doing promotional stuff for Green Beans and somebody comes up to me talking about how they’ve produced their own album and then all of a sudden I wear a different hat,” Noa says. “People want to say getting up and going to your nine-to-five is “back to real life” but no, the real life is what you feel in your gut — that intuition and that passion — and mine is music.”
The Green Beans are also great for events. Since being involved with Green Beans Noa has hosted a handful events such as, putting a couple of bean bags at the April 2013 College of Communications Job Fair at the Study Breaks Magazine table, or outdoor at the Renaissance Festival on Guadalupe Street. Prospective buyers can like the Facebook page and receive notifications on the latest deals and venues that Green Beans is participating in.
More on Green Beans
More on Hector Ward and the Big Time