Composting Takes a New Twist: Throw-Away Dinnerware Arrives

Helen Brandt is a writer and is frequently seen on ice at the Sportsplex in Bellingham.

Have you ever had the urge to toss that pile of dirty dishes in the garbage? And while you’re at it, how about those knives and forks too?

Soon you will be able to do just that and enrich your compost pile at the same time.

Two U.S. companies have developed bowls, plates, cups, and utensils that biodegrade in the compost pile. The most immediate uses for these products are at fast food restaurants that generate tons of packaging waste, and at institutional cafeterias that have lots of dishes to wash.

Nearly 113 billion disposable cups, 39 billion disposable eating utensils and 29 billion disposable plates are used in the United States every year, and half these items are made of plastic. These plastic disposable food-service items generate waste and significant amounts of litter.

Two companies producing compostable dinnerware and utensils are EarthShell Corporation based in Santa Barbara, California and BioCorp based in Redondo Beach, California.

Earthshell is engaged in a joint venture with DuPont to develop new forms of environmentally friendly packaging. The companies are working on sandwich wraps and protective coatings for EarthShell cups, plates, bowls and hinged-lid containers.

EarthShell announced in July, 2001, that it had been given the “go-ahead” by McDonalds’ Corporation to supply all 465 Chicago area McDonalds’ restaurants with the new EarthShell Packaging container for the Big Mac® sandwich.

The containers are made from reclaimed potato starch, natural limestone and post-consumer recycled fiber (which does not require the cutting of trees), biodegradable polymer and wax coatings, and water. They will withstand hot and cold foods as required.

This new packaging substantially reduces risk to wildlife compared to polystyrene foam sandwich containers because it biodegrades when exposed to moisture in nature. It physically disintegrates in water when crushed or broken and can be composted in a commercial facility or in your backyard.

EarthShell has begun testing of hot beverage cups with a regional restaurant chain. The compostable cups are designed for use with hot beverages such as coffee, tea and specialty hot drinks. In the United States alone, the hot cup market is valued at just over $1 billion annually.

Approximately eighty percent of the EarthShell material is starch and abundant limestone (calcium carbonate). The remaining ingredients are recycled fiber, protective coatings, manufacturing release agents, and a thickener.

Natural starch is a highly renewable resource. Potato crops can be grown annually and harvested specifically for this purpose. But to further compound the environmental benefits, EarthShell Corporation uses reclaimed starch from the commercial processing of potatoes and French fries. This maximizes the efficiency of potato processing and reduces costs.

Cellulose fiber, found in post-consumer recycled paper, makes up a small percentage of the EarthShell material. This product is already biodegradable, and gives the EarthShell container its toughness.

EarthShell is utilizing DuPont’s new Biomax® water biodegradable polyester. This polyester uses polyethylene terephthalate (PET) technology.

In Biomax®, the polyester chains contain weak spots, which make them susceptible to degradation under ambient conditions.

Biomax® is intended mainly for disposal by composting and in-soil degradation. The large polymer molecules are cleaved by moisture into smaller molecules, which are then consumed by naturally occurring microbes and converted to carbon dioxide and water.

Researchers performed a series of tests to determine environmental impact, including plant germination and seedling emergence, earthworm weight gain and mortality, and microbial population density. In all tests, the materials were found to be harmless to the environment at every stage in the decomposition process. They are virtually undetectable to the unaided eye in about eight weeks.

The Department of Interior, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly conducted a project to examine the behavior of EarthShell Packaging products when composted with food scraps and other organic materials.

The project was successful and earned the company a commercial agreement with Guest Services, Inc., which manages government cafeteria service operations, to supply plates and bowls to the Department of Interior. The department employs 70,000 persons nationwide and has millions of visitors each year to the national parks and other facilities it manages.

In August, 2001, the Presidio, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the National Park System, agreed to use EarthShell plates and bowls in its Acre Café. Located in San Francisco, California, the Presidio is an environmental leader among National Parks. The Acre Café is one of the park’s gourmet restaurants, and offers a variety of dishes using only free-range meats, organic produce, and organic coffees.

Oregon State University, with a student population of nearly 18,000, decided to switch to EarthShell after evaluating its environmental attributes and performance characteristics through testing the products in campus dining centers.

Cornell University, will begin using the EarthShell plates, bowls, and hinged-lid sandwich containers at food service venues on its Ithaca, New York, campus.

Bon Appétit, a major food service provider, manages food service operations for Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. EarthShell has agreed to provide Bon Appétit with plates, bowls and hinged-lid containers for the colleges’ dining services.

The Milwaukee Public School System has approved EarthShell Packaging plates and bowls for use in school cafeterias. The Los Angeles Unified School District and the University of Texas in Houston have also tested the products and found them to be successful.

EarthShell Packaging plates and bowls are being introduced at selected Wal-Mart stores in Portland, Oregon, and Baltimore, Maryland.

Earthshell has entered into a joint venture with Huhtamaki Van Leer, a worldwide packaging company based in Finland. The containers are being manufactured in Göttingen, Germany, and will conform to strict European Union regulations regarding biodegradability. The first product is the hinged-lid sandwich container for cold and hot products, such as hamburgers. Products such as cups, plates and bowls will be added later.

The second company involved in the manufacture of compostable dinnerware is BioCorp. It is one of the first companies to commercialize NatureWorks™ PLA (polylactide), a new corn-based plastic made by Cargill Dow Polymers LLC. Biocorp was founded in 1996 and manufactures biodegradable products that have been used in 17 countries.

In April, 1997, for the first time ever in the fast food industry, McDonalds’ introduced biodegradable and compostable cutlery in its European restaurants. McDonalds’ restaurants in Austria, Germany, and Sweden are using biodegradable products made of Mater-Bio resin. The same utensils are available in North America through Biocorp reSourceWare.

Biocorp clear drinking cups made from the new NatureWorks™ material have already debuted in Australia, and are currently in test applications at a number of major U.S. markets. The new clear, cold drink cups could offer customers a “natural alternative” to ordinary plastic cups. Biocorp has been working with the new resin alternative for nine months to perfect its newest offering.

The new cold drink cup has physical properties competitive with petroleum-based plastics. It has the added environmental benefits of being both naturally based and fully compostable. Biocorp’s existing line of biodegradable products includes plates, cutlery, hot drink cups and straws.

Carbon is removed by living plants from the air through photosynthesis. Carbon is stored in plant starches, which can be broken down into natural plant sugars. The carbon and other elements in these natural sugars are then used to make NatureWorks™ PLA the same material used in Biocorp drinking cups.

The dextrose (a plant sugar) extracted from corn is fermented to produce lactic acid. Corn is being used because of its abundance and low cost. Dextrose is turned into lactic acid by using a fermentation process similar to that used by beer and wine producers. Multiple lactic acid molecules are linked together via an intermediate to create the polymer PLA.

PLA is not a new polymer. But the recent advances in the fermentation of dextrose (which is obtained from the corn) has led to a dramatic reduction in the manufacturing cost of the lactic acid used to make the polymers.

Future plans call for extracting dextrose from other plant sources such as sugar beets, wheat, rice and other products containing cellulose. A major new market for producers of agricultural crops may potentially be created, expanding the employment base for rural workers.

In addition to a PLA plant near Minneapolis, a 300-million-dollar plant in Blair, Nebraska, is expected to employ 100 workers and produce 140,000 metric tons of the polymers each year.

Cargill Dow can produce a wide range of biodegradable NatureWorks products that vary in molecular weight and crystallinity. The products range from clear wraps for peppermint candies to soft drink bottles and fabric for clothing. NatureWork™ PLA is claimed to use 20-50 percent less fossil resources than comparable petroleum-based products.

A major benefit of biodegradable plates, cups, and utensils depends on the availability of composting procedures for the waste. As the study by the European Union noted in 2000, “Claiming biodegradability has little or no credibility in the absence of a waste composting industry.”

While it may be relatively easy for large institutions such as universities and government agencies to arrange for composting their food waste, it remains to be seen whether individual fast food restaurants can efficiently do the same. Perhaps a new commercial waste management specialty will develop as the need for composting services grows.

At the present time, there is no commercial composting service in Whatcom County available to restaurants or businesses who might be interested in composting their food waste. The City of Bellingham contracts with Skagit Soils to haul and compost the yard waste brought to the city’s green collection site on Lakeway.

At Western Washington University, there have been periodic attempts to compost some food waste from dining halls by using the Fairhaven College compost area. However, this has been labor intensive for student volunteers who had to lug the buckets over to the compost area.

Even if the full potential of compostable dinnerware lies somewhere in the future, the present benefit is that it can reduce the amount of nondegradable plastic and styrofoam piling up in our landfills.

For an in-depth discussion of the prospects for biobased food packaging, see the report completed by the European Union in November, 2000: “Biobased Packaging Materials for the Food Industry. Status and Perspectives,” edited by Claus J. Weber. It can be downloaded as a pdf file from the website: http://www.mli.kvl.dk/foodchem/special/biopack/FOODBIOPACK.pdf.