Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes are my Plate

The plastic market will be experiencing change in the near future. I picked up the latest copy of Business 2.0 and in the section entitled "What's Next" My eye was drawn to an image of Mr. Potato and the headline Spuds Steal the Plastics Market.

It seems that several West Coast cities will be doing away with nonrecyclable and non biodegradable plastics. These polystyrene products, commonly found in Styrofoam containers and plastic cutlery are ubiquitous. The fast food industry has made a pretty penny relying on them as a low cost packaging option.

Portland, Oakland, and Santa Monica implemented bans in January. San Francisco will start the summer without them cluttering landfills. Seattle is still on the fence. The current industry ships 39 billion pieces of cutlery annually.

A Richmond, CA based company, Excellent Packaging & Supply, has been distributing Spudware, a branded line of bioplastic cutlery, for the past three year. The success of the company gives new hope to the world. In there short existence, they have garnered revenues of $5 million, turning a profit and growing at 40% over the last two years.

EPS produces a number of environmentally friendly products. The aforementioned Spudware is just one. Manufactured 80% potato starch and 20% soybean oil. It is highly heat resistant, more than othe bioplastic counterparts, and biodegradable. Currently, it is pricier than other bioplastic options, but like any sustainable endeavor, with time, improvements will be made, and costs will fall, for both the manufacturer and the consumer.

Other bioplastics mentioned in the article were made from sugarcane pulp and corn resin. And while they are currently successful due to the support of DuPont and Dow. However, they have their drawbacks. They are not as heat-resistant as the potato based plastic or, for that matter, the petroleum products that they hope to replace. Nor are they as durable, softening when wet.

Ultimately, we live in a very exciting time. People are willing to change their habits, change the way that they build thing. Cities and the powers that be are making sweeping changes and decisions that not only affect their constiuents but the industries involved. The bans on plastics, while happening in "smaller" cities is analgous to New York deciding that trans fats will no longer be permissible within the city's borders. The ban has forced many restaurants, especially fast food chains to rethink the way they prepare meals. While they have time to innovate (until July 2008), it has become food for thought.

One can hope that more cities will adopt healthier habits, both for the environment and themselves.

35 days, 35 runs...