Monday, June 8, 2009

Biodegradable Serveware IS Available!

Once again, I'm telling you, I learn the most amazing things on Twitter. Tonight I learned that they actually do make biodegradable food service containers!

Do you hear that??? Your cold cups, your hot cups, your sushi containers could ALL be biodegradable and NOT outlast petrified Twinkies in a landfill!

As we know that garbage is one of the problems we face here on our little Island, shouldn't MORE companies be using these items that are made out of renewable ingredients? Want to know what they're made out of? Mind you, we are talking FOOD service here. The plastics we use currently is made from oil. These biodegradable items are made from -- CORN.

Good old American farm land CORN!!! Uh... hello? Doesn't that help on TWO fronts? Reducing dependence on oil and reducing garbage?

I would think that the NHL or at least the concession management company (that would be SMG) at the Coliseum should be looking into these items. The prices are comparable, and in large quantity are very competitive. (I'll refrain from stating the fact that we are already getting raped for our food items of low quality at the barn so the idea that the packaging is environmentally friendly may make the rip off more palatable. I wish they could do that with the food....)

Check it out. You will be AMAZED!

4 comments:

~me said...

Eventually we will just eat the container!

corn....mmmm...I'm hungry...

We had a great time at riverhead yesterday, and like BAM said...they are champions!

And get that bike out and ready- were heading your way!!

Anonymous said...

Increasing corn product use in the US = increasing wasteful production (energy demands to make the substance), promoting economy bleeding subsidies (king corn), and in the end, is an infeasible plan (it would take all the corn in the US... yada...).

Biodegradable serve-ware seems like a great idea, but not at the overall environmental and economic cost.

It sure is tempting to look at all we throw out at hockey games and try to find a way to make the garbage more earth-friendly... but the real answer is to cut down on waste to begin with... not to find a backdoor around how much we up and waste.

If you increase the demand for these biodegradable plastics, the production will go up, and so will all of the polluting processes behind making more of it. Not to mention the increased economic problems, and the decrease in corn available for actual food production.

Use less packaging... use recyclable glass when possible... stay away from high-energy substances like organic-synthetic plastics and aluminum.

Just... use less whenever we can. That's the real goal.

Fiona said...

Anonymous' comment isn't completely without merit, there should be a reduction in waste in arenas, but it isn't feasible to implement reusable serveware in an arena environment, and it would be more detrimental to the environment to do so from an energy and water standpoint anyway. Compostable corn-based serveware is an excellent alternative to petrochemical-based plastics or non-renewable paper-based products. There are many arenas who are championing less waste in water, energy and garbage, with their own composting, food donations, garbage reductions, etc. Some are in fact, LEED certified. To just discourage through denigration as Anonymous has done without full examination of the issue is ridiculous.

sherwoman1 said...

I agree with anonymous to some extent as corn is a hungry feeder and when we are growing corn to feed livestock this creates a very negative trophism...so growing corn to produce single use containers seems to be speaking of the same. The production of any containers uses high amounts of energy and water and then there is the product itself, be it corn or oil...
Maybe there is a bioproduct of the vegetable oil industry or some corn snack food industry that could be used instead of the first grade product...perhaps it has already been researced i think we need to investigate further and share what we come up with..what do you think?