If you run a small business that serves food to consumers or even employees or you want to stock your home with disposable food supplies, a compostable choice is the way to go.
Compostable food service supplies are high performing products that reduce cost and waste at the same time. These products finally compete with conventional choices that often include toxic ingredients that when heated or scraped can end up being ingested. Plus, many mainstream disposable plates, bowls, and utensils end up inundating landfills and could eventually leach into the soil and water table.
Compostable food service supplies are a safer, non-toxic, comparably affordable choice that degrade back into the earth and can be reused as fertile soil or even fuel.
Benefits of Composting
Using compostable food service supplies is first and foremost a major benefit to the environment. Whether you setup your own composting program or donate your compostables to a compost facility these are some of the benefits reported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
- Reduces the need for chemical fertilizers.
- Enriches soil, helping retain moisture and suppress plant diseases and pests.
- Reduces methane emissions from landfills and lowers your carbon footprint.
- Encourages the production of beneficial bacteria and fungi that break down organic matter to create humus, a rich nutrient-filled material.
The benefits continue as composting and compostable product technology advances, particularly enabling small and large applications alike. This would include small businesses, urban living (apartments, townhouses) as well as residential suburban and rural implementation that have larger yard and garden access.
Feedstock
One amazing advantage of supporting compostable food service supplies is its third and maybe most important use, feedstock. Feedstock is described as the “raw material to supply or fuel a machine or industrial process”. As reported by Greener Package, according to a joint study by the Foodservice Packaging Association and the Biodegradable Products Institute it was found that compostable food service packaging provides the same benefit as traditional feedstocks in commercial composting facilities. The conclusion stated that,
“Given these findings, compost manufacturers may want to consider compostable foodservice packaging as a viable feedstock, particularly in areas where composters may incur significant costs to source carbon-bearing feedstocks due to seasonally scarce materials.”
Close the Loop
Another advantage of using compostable food service supplies is closing the loop. This essentially means “from earth to product and back to earth”. Compostable products do just that as they are made from a variety of natural sources such as:
- Bamboo
- Fallen leaves
- Potato starch
- Soybean protein
- Cellulose
Many more compostable sources are being developed every day. Eco-friendly technology has advanced enough for these compostable products to be able to compete with conventional, often toxic, choices. Compostable products contain no glues, dyes or glazes and can tolerate high heat without leaching toxins into your food. Closing the loop by collection of consumer waste and recycling it in recyclable processing plants makes compostable products a top choice for a more sustainable planet.
Consider compostable food service supplies for your small business or home use. Eventually, toxic choices will fall to the wayside. As the collective mainstream experiences a direct correlation between irresponsible disposable habits and life threatening pollution, things will change. Hopefully, this realization will come sooner than later when it may be too late to backtrack and clean up the human made mess.
