How you can support our National Parks Foundation
Our National Parks are in trouble!
In tough times there just aren’t enough dollars to keep our National Parks open and beautiful.
But now there is a way you can help.
Ecotainer® has new compostable hot and cold cups with pictures of our favorite National Parks. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Mount Rushmore, Mount Rainier, Lincoln Memorial and Grand Teton National Park are the parks featured.. The really good news is that for every cup sold one penny will be donated to the National Parks Foundation. That equals ten dollars per case. The cups are assorted in the sleeves and cases so we don’t get to bored with the same old print.
There is no down side to supporting this effort. The cups cost the same as the regular printed cups. You don’t have to go to a park to use them either. Any business can use these attractive and educational cups. They are available right now on www.biomasspackagingstore.com. Stop by and check them out.
If your local coffee shop isn’t using these cups ask why not?
What is BioMass Packaging®?
SpudWare® is part of the BioMass Packaging® Foodservice catalog. Many of you might like to know why we named the catalog biomass. Biomass exists all over the earth. Anywhere life exists you will find biomass. Vegetative growth results in the creation of biomass. We want to identify the uses of biomass. We can use biomass to replace Fossil based products. Biomass grows every year, fossils died millions of years ago. I am tickled when i imagine the packaging being made from wheat straw that grows in eastern washington. We can clearly see the built in efficiencies in utilizing agricultural waste for packaging. The other option is to burn it in the field. Add the regional use of the value added plate and you end up with a sustainable future. We need to achieve a waste stream that is sustainable and compostable.
I know it is possible.
Entering the world of twitter, linkedin and facebook
I want to welcome BioMass Packaging® to the world of twitter, facebook and linkedin. You can now communicate with us in many ways. This is a good thing because we need to have a conversation about the compostable waste stream of the future. This is the mission of Excellent Packaging & Supply, the parent company of SpudWare® and the BioMass Packaging® Family of Catalogs. I say familly referring to the birth of the BioMass Packaging® For Wineries Catalog. This is the first of what will be many niche focused catalogs offering comprehensive alternatives to the non-degradable products currently in use.
The BioMass Packaging® For Wineries Catalog consists of picnic and catering items along with bio-based Earth Friendly Products cleaning supplies allowing wineries to achieve a compostable waste stream. Wineries can offer green parties and weddings by using our products. . The Soy Stainless Steel Cleaner is better than 3M’s famous stainless steel cleaner. This is especially good for winery tasting rooms and churches where the room needs to be a neutral part of your experience. Parsley Plus is the biggest seller and you have to experience the smell to appreciate it. It is a very good counter cleaner and there are many others like Lavender Glass Cleaner and of course the Orange based heavy duty cleaners. Let me know if you would like a sample.
Check us out on twitter, facebook and linkedin. Lets talk
SpudWare® in the Potato Museum
I was contacted last summer by Meredith Hughes from The Potato Museum located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They were interested in putting examples of SpudWare® utensils in the museum. Sounded great to me and we have sent them some to display. I think potatoes are great. I especially like baked potatoes with butter and sour cream on the side.
For those of you who can’t make it to the Potato Museum in New Mexico, you will be pleased to know that there will be an exhibition on the spud at the US Botanic Garden in Washington, DC. The exhibition opens on May 7, 2010. Drop on by and learn of the great value potatoes have added to human existence.
and now for some potato trivia
- A potato is about 80% water and 20% solid.
- Henry Spalding first planted potatoes in Idaho in 1837
- “French Fries” were introduced to America when Thomas Jefferson served them at a Whitehouse dinner.
- United States potato lovers consumed more than 4 million tons of French Fries in various shapes and sizes.
- Potatoes are a powerful aphrodisiac, says a physician in Ireland.
- The average American eats 140 pounds of potatoes per year. Germans eat more than 200 pounds per year.
- The largest potato grown was 18 pounds and 4 ounces according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It was grown in England in 1795.
- The highest volume baked potato restaurant, The Hot Potato, is located in Plaza las Americas in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
A Sustainable Waste Stream System
Imagine the possibility of a Sustainable. Compostable and Capturable Waste stream. Technology is moving quickly towards giving us the ability to utilize any biomass for either fuel or packaging feedstock. Agricultural Waste is generated all over the United States in the various forms determined by what is grown. In Eastern Washington state wheat straw is the first ag waste feedstock that comes to mind. This is what is left over after harvesting the wheat kernels. Currently it is burned or plowed under. This waste material can be transformed into foodservice packaging. Harvest, clean and make into a slurry. The machine is like a giant waffle maker that turns it into plates or bowls. The most logical market is Seattle and Portland. Carbon foot print reduction occurs in all phases of production and distribution compared to fossil non-degradable plastic pollution.
Look around where you live. What is the agricultural economy based upon. I have no doubt that there is waste that could be utilized for fuel or packaging. We currently do not value these resources. However, much like a weed is a plant growing where you do not want it, Ag Waste is a disposal problem with a value added solution.
It might seem impossible to make this kind of a change. The entrenched interests will force styrofoam down our throats no matter what the consumer prefers.
And yet the change will happen. The plastic in the ocean will force us to change our waste stream.
So Look Around and please let me know what your agricultural waste is made of. We are the consumer. We get to decide. As with any new innovation, there is the price component. Cost is higher for these products while infrastructure is ramped up to supply the innovaters. Efficiencies of scale come into play as systems become refined and the specific successful applications emerge. Creating a compostable waste stream essentially answers in a positive way the problem of culture expansion.
Government efforts to ban Polystyrene(styrofoam, clear hinged containers, plates, utensils)) continue to grow.
More cities and counties are moving forward to enact regulations that ban polystyrene for foodservice packaging use. Polystyrene is seen as a significant pollutant at all life stages. The polluting process begins at the factory where the plastic beads are blown away from the manufacturing site and much of it ends up in the water drainage ultimately going into the ocean. When the product is made and sold, there are few end of life scenarios that do not include polllution and contamination. Government actions are typically heavy handed and usually leave exemptions for large businesses like fast food outlets.
I believe the consumer is the preferred engine of change towards a compostable waste stream. The education of the consumer should be the major avenue of change away from fossil material. Consumers balance cost versus benefits with every purchase. Consumer demand for alternative choices in foodservice packaging have been evolving towards sustainability for many years. In my 35 years of selling foodservice packaging I have seen the sustainability issue come around every 5-8 years. There are some changes that stick with each cycle of change. The paper hot cup had to be made to look like a styrofoam cup in order for the consumer to understand the difference in the application. The acceptance of the paper hot cup proves that if consumers recognize added value in the coffee drinking experience they will pay much more for the experience, up to 4 times as much cost for the cup.
Government should focus on educating the consumer. Let the consumer decide how to spend the money.
Products like SpudWare® and Ecotainers® serve to educate the consumer in multiple ways.
First they learn what the plastic they have been using is made of, fossil materials.
Second they learn that Bio-plastic alternatives exist now in a way they have never existed. Large waste streams can be filled with compostable material that can be disposed of in a variety of sustainable end of life scenarios.
Third they learn the importance of taking care of our own needs. This means utilizing feedstocks that exist domestically and are not currently used or valued. Whether they are in the form of wheat straw in Eastern Washington or the forest trimmings in Colorado these waste feedstocks hold great efficiencies that when realized result in a system of self sustainability.
This is just the beginning of the process. Do you think that there might be a curriculum about plastic in our education system. Plastic that is ubiquitous, yet when we first started presenting to colleges in 2006, 70% of American Consumers did not know what plastic was made from.
Now is a time for innovation. Foodservice packaging is evolving faster than it has since the introduction of fossil plastic and fast food. Feedstocks of vegetable starch, sugarcane bagasse, Ingeo corn plastic, bulrush and many other mediums are the solutions for the future. Learn and advocate for this new sustainable solution.