PerfecTouch Hot Cups Not Compostable | Buy BPI Certified Cups 
Written by dinesh • 10 comments.
Looking to make a purchase? Check out our BPI certified 100% compostable hot cups.
Every so often we need to call out products and/or manufactures in the industry that claim their products meet certain environmental standards when they blatantly do not.
This happened recently with Taterware’s Utensils and unfortunately it’s now happening with Georgia Pacific’s PerfecTouch Hot Cups.
As you can see in the 2nd bullet on the right,
Georgia Pacific is claiming that their Perfectouch hot cups are compostable.
(If the print is a bit small, just click the picture to see the live version on Georgia Pacific’s site).
We know this is false for two reasons:
- The hot cups are not certified by the BPI (the leading certifier of compostable packaging) nor is there any evidence that the hot cups meet the national standards for compostability, ASTM D6400 & D6868, and
- The hot cups are lined with a plastic polymer, polyethylene (PE), and in a recent study commissioned by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition it was found that only 8.3% of commericial composting facilities that accept food packaging accept paper hot cups lined with polyethylene (vs. 80% acceptance for paper cups lined with a bio-plastic like poly-lactic acid).
These Perfectouch hot cups are unfortunately green washing and they do the entire industry a disservice.
UPDATE (8/3/2010): Viv Video | “Compostable Hot Cups – 4 Tips to Buying Truly Green Biodegradable Coffee Cups”
If you’d like learn more about how you can make sure you’re purchasing hot cups that are 100% compostable and earth friendly, please see our Buyer’s Guide for Compostable Hot Cups.
According to the Georgia Pacific website, they only claim a single compostable cup, Dixie PLA. The cup you have pictured is not their compostable cup.
http://www.gppro.com/category_beverage.aspx
“Environmentally responsible*: We offer the Insulair cup which features 12% or 25% post-consumer recycled fiber and/or is compostable in commercial composting facilities (which may or may not be available in your area).”
This is probably an oversight as opposed to flat out greenwashing.
Unfortunately Tracy, this is not the case. If you look at their site at the link you provided – http://www.gppro.com/category_beverage.aspx – they have a description for the PerfecTouch Cups. That description is as follows:
“This insulated cup keeps beverages hot, hands cool and the environment happy. Free of polystyrenefoam, made from paper and polyethylene; and can be composted in commercial composting facilities (which may or may not be available in your area).”
That’s pretty specific false advertising as far as I’m concerned.
You’re right. What are they using, some type of oxo-biodegradable lining? What did GP tell you why they are advertising polyethelyne cups as compostable?
Hey Tracy – We haven’t heard from GP yet. Will keep you posted there.
They’re lining the cups with polyethelyne (PE). There are a very rare few composting facilities across the country that do accept paper cups lined with PE. I recently read a study on this commissioned by the Sustainable Packaging Coalition that said this is less than 10% of all composting facilities in the US. My guess is that GP is trying to bend the truth by saying they’re compostable in a commercial composting facility because they’ve found a few facilities that will take them.
Unfortunately, it’s a still a complete mis-representation of the truth, because the vast majority of facilities won’t accept them and they’re not certified by the BPI nor do they meet ASTM standards for compostability.
[...] manufacturers who are making false claims that their products are compostable (e.g., Taterware and Georgia Pacific), without providing any compostable certification to support these [...]
[...] These certifiers however, are not working together to use a uniform logo or label to denote that a product has been certified as 100% compostable. Because of this lack of cooperation and regulation, many products are also greenwashing and claiming to be compostable when they do not meet the appropriate standards (see PerfecTouch Hot Cups). [...]
The big problem here is that these companies are taking behaviour and confusing it with science. What I mean is that these companies have come to understand that ‘recyclable’ means something that is potentially accepted at a recycling facility. The behaviour of accepting (or not) determines the recyclability of products on the market.
Just because a compost facility ‘accepts’ a product (and takes money to accept it) does not deem a product compostable. Compostability is determine through a very explicit pass/fail scientific test. GP and numerous others, including Tim Hortons are using behaviour rather than science to pass off their products as compostable.
I agree Kathleen and I think you’ve absolutely nailed it. These manufacturers need to be educated that compostable products are held to a specific scientific standard and that ‘market demand’ or ‘acceptance by composting facilities’ does not make a product compostable.
And yes, I remember reading about the Tim Horton’s claim on your site. Very similar to this GP claim. Just because 1 or 2 facilities accept the cups they are falsly claiming that they’re compostable.
[...] out there that are lined with PE and have been greenwashing and claiming to be compostable (see Perfectouch Hot Cups). Be sure to steer clear of these cups if you’re planning on composting your paper coffee [...]