A new alternative to bringing a reusable coffee cup to the office is taking one home to the compost bin to decompose along with yard clippings and food scraps, to be later shoveled back into the garden, enriching the soil of the Earth. Such is not the goal but the reality of green industry food container producers. What was primarily waste – filling landfills at an alarming rate – is now 100% compostible with amazing decomposing rates.
There are now even different types, lines, and brands of these terrific products to choose from – namely these major players, defined below:
- Bagasse
- PLA (Polylactic Acid)
- Bamboo sheath products
Bagasse Makes Sweet Earth Loving Containers
Bagasse is made from the unused portion of the sugarcane stalk. For these reasons, there are zero limitations in switching from Styrofoam noodle cups to ones made from bagasse. It holds up under high temperatures and can even be microwaved.
- Bagasse is 100% biodegradable. It composts completely in 45-60 days – a bit longer in the home compost bin.
- The portion of the sugarcane stalk bagasse is made from was previously burned or tossed out.
- Bagasse food containers, bags, and cutlery are better for the environment than paper because laws prohibit post-consumer waste from recycled paper products to touch food, such as a hot coffee cup, but can be used for the coffee grip which only touches the cup.
- Sugarcane is very renewable!
- Biodegradable cup lids are projected to be available within 2-3 years.
Styrofoam cups of noodles can now be replaced with bagasse, for instance, and can then be tossed into a compost bin rather than trashed. Some of the many products of bagasse include:
- food containers
- deli counter containers
- burger boxes
- plate lunch and take out containers
- hot and cold cups
- cup holders and carriers
- lunch trays
- plates and bowls
PLA (Polylactic Acid) 100% Compostible
PLA is derived from cornstarch, which turns to dextrose, and is, then, converted to lactic acid through the magic of micro-organisms. This lactic acid is formed in long PLA strands which, when mixed back with cornstarch. can be formed into objects such as cutlery, deli-food containers, and "plastic" bags – bioplastic, that is. On this planet, where regular plastic bags inundate landfills and take hundreds of thousands of years to decompose, bio-plastics and PLAs shed light and hope to a clean, less diseased future. PLAs are 100% compostible, but decompose at the ASTM standard rate of 90% in 90 days and 100% with in 180 days. Mixed with soil, yard trimmings, compostible food, these help improve soil, enriching gardens and the Earth's surface.
PLA is Not Petroleum Based as Most Plastics
14 shopping bags contain sufficient petroleum to drive a car 1 mile according to Earth-Centric.com. Purchasing non-petroleum based products reduces dependency on foreign oil. PLA and bio-plastics are 100% petrochemical-free, and the process to make products from these compounds is much less invasive to eco-systems. Traditional plastic bags are produced using coal, natural gas, and oil – precious natural resources – in vastly wasteful amounts. Biodegradable bioplastics – completely compostible – are made from corn, potato, tapioca, and other naturally renewable plant sources, and, processing reduces the carbon footprint during production.
PLAs compost at the rate of 30-45 days – longer in home compost bins. One company that carries all bagasse and PLA products mentioned here is the earth-friendly, green-industry supplier, Earth-Centric, LLC. Located in Portland, Oregon, this company provides an invaluable service, along with the products it sells – reducing ever-growing landfill masses, encouraging composting at companies and at home, and reducing clients' carbon footprints just by purchasing and putting their products to use. Earth-Centric can even print client names and logos on many of their products.
From Bamboo Forest to Compostible Dinnerware
A line of products has been developed which is not only compostible, green, earth-friendly, and 100% decomposable, but very sustainable and renewable since it derives from a naturally, self-effacing substance – the bamboo sheath, called Bamboo Dinnerware. Nothing is even cut down in creating these products as bamboo sheaths remove themselves from the bamboo stalk as it grows, sloughing off naturally, from the stalks to the ground.
Picked up and formed into dinnerware and cutlery, these products are made from completely thrown away – until now – plant substance and therefore don't even require processing into pulp, first. Molded into shape, these products of Bamboo Dinnerware are 100% biodegradable and have an attractive grain to them – from the organic pattern of the sheaths themselves. No bleach – as with most paper plates – is required, ensuring the safety of marine life and water sources.
Bamboo is also one of the most renewable forest plants. It grows very quickly and reduces greenhouse gases faster than other trees in a similar sized forest. This makes bamboo a best choice in tree farming, perfect for regreening desolate and forest depleted areas. Regreening rates are faster with bamboo, which emits 35% more oxygen than other forested and farmed trees in the same numbers. Simply picked up from the forest floor, cleaned, boiled, laminated, and formed into various dinnerware and cutlery shapes, the eco-friendly green-industry of Bamboo Dinnerware is to be heralded in its efficiency – often replacing the bloated Styrofoam filling landfills for centuries before decomposition takes place.
Sun Chips, by Frito Lay, are now sold in 100% compostible bags. In the home compost bin, a tested bag decomposed faster than an avocado peel which laid next to it. Tossed into a landfill instead, the same bag would have decomposed at a similar rate, but put instead into a commercial composter, would have decomposed even faster. The freshness of Sun Chips has not been compromised, and after the Sun Chips were eaten, their bag did not remain as a stain on the planet or waste in a landfill for centuries to come.
Do the right thing: endorse these products forging their progressive changes in this world, reduce carbon footprints, and encourage green-industry practices, as well as instilling these principles at home. Purchase these products and look for them in the aisles as encouragement to companies who have served as a catalyst in bringing about and living sustainably. As Gandi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Read about the horrors of plastic bags pollution of the planet in this article, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is in the Bag.
Read about and buy Eco-Farmed Beauty Products – Clean Options in Health and Beauty.
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