In a single year, Americans discarded 970,000 tons of paper cups, 730,000 tons of Styrofoam and plastic plates and cups, and 2,810,000 tons of plastic containers and bottles, according to the most recent (2003) figures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While the Foodservice & Packaging Institute (FPI), a Falls Church, Virginia–based trade organization, says that only around 3 percent of that waste is generated by the foodservice industry, that’s still a lot of landfill fodder.
Take coffee cups, for instance. International Paper Company, one of the world’s largest provider of paper cups for hot beverages, estimates that, “every year, Americans drink more than 100 billion cups of coffee [and] of those, 14.4 billion are served in disposable paper cups—enough to wrap the earth 55 times if placed from end-to-end.” Within five years, that number will soar to 20 billion as away-from-home coffee consumption continues to grow. The majority of disposable cups are lined with plastic produced from petrochemicals.
And as the amount of packaging waste being produced continues to increase, the amount of landfill space to contain it is shrinking. The Clean Air Council reports that in 1979, there were an estimated 18,500 landfills in the nation. Sixteen years later, that number had been reduced by 84 percent while the amount of trash generated has increased by about 80 percent.
Right now, eco-conscious packaging is making the biggest impact in the premium coffee and other higher-end quick-service restaurant segments because these companies are willing to spend a little more to make a statement, says Foodservice & Packaging Institute President John Burke.
Experts caution care in labeling materials as “biodegradable” because the ability of waste to degrade is subject to local conditions. Most prefer to describe materials as “compostable” because that indicates adherence to specific standards. They also express the hope that operator and consumer interest in environmental issues will encourage municipalities to improve their composting facilities and processes.
One of Burke’s main concerns is that consumers will toss their “compostable” packaging on the streets in the belief that the materials will quickly degrade.
“Foodservice items already account for about 20 to 22 percent of the country’s litter stream,” he says. “All packaging needs to be disposed of properly.”
In an effort to help alleviate America’s landfill dilemma, some progressive operators are looking for more earth-friendly packaging options. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, in conjunction with International Paper, recently developed a new hot beverage cup with a lining made from corn rather than petrochemicals. Although, like regular cups, the outside of this “ecotainer” is made from paperboard, it comes from tree farms managed in accordance with Sustainable Forestry Initiative (sfi) guidelines, a national conservation effort to prevent the harvesting of old growth forest, and is manufactured in a greenhouse-gas-neutral environment, says Green Mountain Vice President of Marketing, T.J. Whalen.
The lining, made from a proprietary polylactide polymer (PLA) or corn-based plastic manufactured by NatureWorks LLC, a standalone company wholly owned by Cargill, was developed to fully degrade into water, carbon dioxide, and organic matter in industrial composting facilities. Green Mountain blind-tested about 7 million of the corn-lined cups over the past year, offering consumers a feedback hotline to register their comments and complaints. “We received no negative feedback,” Whalen reports.
Recently, the company rolled out the cup to its units in 49 states and several foreign countries and has, to date, used more than 10 million of them. Whalen describes the transition as “seamless.” The company touts its new earth-friendly container with point-of-sale-signage headlined, “We Grew This Cup.”
Green Mountain estimates that by using the corn-lined cups, the company can reduce its consumption of non-renewable petrochemical materials by nearly a quarter million pounds per year. In a joint fact sheet issued by Green Mountain and International Paper, the two companies say that the cups will be available to other foodservice operations soon and that they hope this technology will become “an industry standard.”
Green Mountain and International Paper are also among the companies seeking to develop an earth-friendly hot cup lid, which has presented a major challenge. At present, they are exploring the potential of soy as a source for the lids.
Until recently, low heat tolerance (110°F) and special storage requirements (out of direct sunlight, in a cool, dry place) limited the use of corn-based plastics to cold items. One chain that successfully uses PLA packaging for that purpose is Organic To Go, an all-natural and organic fast-casual café and corporate meal delivery service with locations in Southern California and Washington.