We’re part of a LinkedIn group called the Compost Network and recently had an interesting exchange with another member of the group.

Kathy W. said: “Any hope for composting movie theatre trash? I have a client that generates a lot of trash at their multiple locations. We’ve got them recycling the cardboard and larger plastics, but the bulk of their waste is from the snack bar. There is nothing clean about any of it: nacho cheese sauce on boxes, popcorn, cups with soda, etc.

Is there any hope to help them compost or otherwise recycle this mess? They do not, under their current staffing levels, have the time or manpower – or even storage space – for sorting. I welcome any suggestions!”

1. Tickets = Paper (Recyclable or Compostable)
2. Paper Towels in the Bathrooms = Paper (Compostable)
3. Food and Drink = Organic (Compostable)
4. Food and Drink Packaging from the Snack Bar = Plastic (! Not Compostable !)

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Food service businesses of all types have been using plastic containers with lids for decades. The containers come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and are used as: take out food clamshells, deli containers, water and soda bottles, coffee cups, personal care bottles (e.g., shampoo or body wash bottles), and a great number of food items lining the shelves of grocery stores (e.g., milk cartons, food trays for produce, yogurt cups).

Traditionally, these items have been made from petroleum, but increasingly a new generation of containers and lids are available that are made from renewable resources including polylactic acid (corn), bagasse, paper, and wheat straw. These materials can be used to make food containers and lids that are certified 100% compostable according to ASTM D-6400 and D-6868, and can thus be composted in a commercial composting facility.

So with that, here are:

6 Reasons to Switch from Plastic Containers to Compostable Containers

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The vast majority of the US does not live in a city / town that offers curbside composting. Traditionally this has meant that if you want to compost, you need to set up your own home or backyard composting system. For some folks this is easy – they have acres of land and setting up a compost pile is a piece of cake.

For city dwellers however it’s a bit more difficult. Backyards are scarce, sometimes shared, and often small. Indoor composting options are available, but they can be expensive (e.g., the Naturemill starts at $299) and the cheaper home-made options can be smelly or attract bugs.

And that’s just for your home. Now think about running an eco-minded restaurant or cafe where you have 10x the waste of a household. You’re trying to move toward zero-waste and compost your food scraps (and even your food packaging)… but you don’t have a backyard, and you sure don’t have enough space to compost all your food waste indoors in your kitchen.

So what do you do?

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Polylactic acid (also referred to as poly lactic acid, polylactide, or PLA) is a biopolymer made from renewable resources such as corn starch and cane sugar. It is biodegradable in a commercial composting environment and has a broad range of applications, including: textiles, furnishings, medical devices, food packaging, and more.

Polylactic Acid Pellets

This article is going to focus exclusively on polylactic acid as it relates to food packaging and food packaging products.

Physical Properties

PLA products are typically clear and look and feel very similar to typical petroleum based plastic products. Traditionally the products have been weaker and more brittle than petroleum-based plastic products (e.g., a hot cup coffee lid could crack or tear when being placed on a cup) but recent manufacturing advances have brought overall strength of these products in line with petroleum-based plastic products. (more…)

Looking to make a purchase? Check out our 100% compostable bowls.

We’ve had a variety of dessert businesses join our Eco Buying Group recently – frozen yogurt shops, ice cream parlors, gelato makers, etc.

Sustainability has become very important to many of these businesses – from sourcing organic milk & dairy, to using energy efficient lighting & appliances, to minimizing the waste from their stores & operations.

In particular, many of these businesses have come to us looking for compostable ice cream cups and ice cream bowls, and as a result, we’ve started to gain a fair amount of insight into the supply needs of dessert business owners. And with that, we decided to put together:

The Definitive Guide to Purchasing Compostable Ice Cream Containers

We’re going to focus here on purchasing compostables, but we will say first, we highly recommend using re-usables for any customers that are having their ice cream or frozen yogurt in-store. (more…)

Located in one of the greenest cities of the world (San Francisco), we’re constantly asking ourselves why our city has not mastered the art of educating citizens on how to properly dispose of their waste. So we decided to study some of the systems used around the world in order to better understand the ways in which cities approach waste management.

Santa Monica, California

A single stream in full force

Within the Californian City of Santa Monica, all the communities waste is put into one waste bin. This is then hand-sorted by workers at the recycling centre in the cities Industrial zone, which is run by a private company, paid for by tax dollars. This single-streaming process seems laborious, but it has the advantage of focusing the operation in a single venue and eliminates the responsibility of residents to sort out their trash from their recyclables. (more…)

First, Styrofoam is a brand name and is a trademark of the Dow Company. The scientific name for the material is polystyrene or expanded polystyrene, often abbreviated EPS. For the purposes of this article however, we will refer to polystyrene as Styrofoam.

Second, when we say that recycling styrofoam shouldn’t be done, by no means are we advocating that you purchase lots of Styrofoam and throw it in the landfill. Actually quite the opposite. What we mean is that you shouldn’t recycle styrofoam… because you shouldn’t be using it or buying it in the first place.

Reasons why you should never use Styrofoam

1. Your Health – The primary chemical component of polystyrene is…drum roll – styrene. Studies have shown that over time small amounts of styrene can leak into your food & beverage – particularly hot food and beverage. If you’re a frequent drinker of coffee for example, drinking 3 a day in polystyrene cups, you could consumer as much as an entire cup of ‘styrene’ over the course of a 3 year period. Styrene is also noted as a possible carcinogen by the EPA and the International Agency for Research on Cancer and studies suggest that it is a disruptor of normal hormone functions and may be linked to (more…)

A Brief History of Group Purchasing

Group Purchasing (or Group Buying) is a very simple concept that adheres to the old adage: “there’s power in numbers” –> groups of buyers come together and leverage their size to gain access to large discounts on products or services.

The model originated in the healthcare space in 1910 when the first group purchasing organization (GPO) was established by the Hospital Bureau of New York. (more…)

Kathleen Boylan from the Waste Reduction Store in Canada posed the above question in a recent blog post citing the lack of product stewardship in the compostables industry.

From Kathleen:
“It would seem that the compostable industry simply expects that by developing resins made from plants, then manufacturing these more expensive products and certifiying them as compostable, makes them inherently responsible and allows us to abdicate end of life responsibility while competing industries step up. We simply are not, defacto, product ’stewards’… we too need to step up and develop the infrastructures [such that] the waste from our profits ends up in composting systems.”

It’s a powerful point and one supported by many of the events currently taking place in the compostables space, including: (more…)

A series of sports stadiums across the country have started composting recently thanks to the EPA’s Green Venues Program. The program helps major league & college sports venues green their stadiums and operations across a host of areas, including: energy efficiency, water efficiency, and waste reduction.

We’ve been particularly excited about the number of venues who have since kicked off composting programs. Here’s a shortlist of teams that now have composting programs at their stadiums / arenas: (more…)