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A
Richmond company stands to benefit big time from San Francisco’s
decision to
ban
non-biodegradable plastic grocery bags.
Excellent Packaging &
Supply, located at
3220 Blume Drive in Richmond was founded in 2003 and specializes in
environmentally friendly plastic substitutes. The company stands ready
to provide San Francisco’s grocery bags.
Excellent Packaging &
Supply, which produces
exclusively products made from renewable resources that are recyclable,
compostable or biodegradable, has experienced 40% growth annually.
Products include:
SpudWare™
Biodegradable Cutlery
made from 80% starch (potato or corn) and 20% soy or other vegetable
oil. Able to withstand High-Heat!
BagasseWare™
Paper plates, cups,
trays, bowls, and boxes made from plant fibers, either grown or
recovered as crop residue. May be sugar cane, wheat bamboo or rice based
pulps. Microwavable, ovenable and freezable, biodegradable, compostable
and sustainable.
NatureWorks™ PLA
Made from corn
grown in the USA, PLA is used to make clear plastic cups, bowls, boxes,
straws and can liners. Biodegradable, compostable and sustainable
BioBag™
Bags and can liners made from Mater-Bi, derived from cornstarch. Used
for T-shirts bags and can liners. Biodegradable, compostable, recyclable
and burnable.
See
the following stories from KGO and the San Francisco Chronicle:
Mar.
27 - KGO
- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to ban non-biodegradable
plastic grocery bags in the city. It's all part of the effort these days
to get rid of plastics that are clogging our landfills with debris that
will last for thousands of years. But in our Drive to Discover, ways to
have less of an impact on our planet, California companies are turning
to recyclable alternatives.
Many people don't think much about that plastic container when they toss
it, but what they are actually tossing is a product made from fossil
fuel. And more often than not it ends up in a garbage dump.
Steve Levine is with Excellent Packaging and Supply. They started out in
2004 selling traditional plastic goods.
Steve Levine, Excellent Packaging, founder: "After six months of being
in business, it became clear that there were products coming into the
market that we had never seen before."
The
Richmond company now focuses exclusively on environmentally friendly
plastic substitutes. It turned out to be a smart move. Their business
has grown 40 percent each year since they started.
Steve Levine, Excellent Packaging, founder: "Where we are at now is a
turning point where people and the markets are beginning to understand
that there is a choice that you can make. You do not have to buy
petroleum-based plastic."
Many of the products they offer are made from agricultural waste.
Greg Stevens, Excellent Packaging: "We offer a very comprehensive line
of biodegradable packaging made from annual renewable resources -- corn,
potatoes and sugar cane."
It
often surprises people.
Greg Stevens, Excellent Packaging: "When somebody walks up to you and
asks you what this fork or spoon is made from and you say it's made from
potatoes, it does turn some heads."
Spudwear is made from potato skins; bagasseware from sugar cane and PLA
from corn.
Excellent Packaging sells more than 200 products -- all sustainable,
compostable, and biodegradable. That means when you toss them, the waste
eventually becomes part of the earth with little environmental impact.
The
products also take less energy to manufacture. Most paper coffee cups
are coated inside with polyethylene -- a plastic.
Chris Roeder, International Paper: "Twenty-five million pounds is what
we use of polyethylene to coat just paper hot cups in the U.S. every
year."
Chris Roeder is marketing manager for International Paper in Central
California. They make a cup with an alternate and more environmentally
friendly coating.
Chris Roeder, International Paper: "The cup is made from fully renewable
resources -- corn and trees."
The
specially coated cups are made to be compostable and biodegradable.
Chris Roeder, International Paper: "It is all domestically grown feed
stock corn similar to our trees. They are all sustainably grown and
harvested right here in the U.S."
The
cups cost slightly more than standard plastic cups, but they're
completely compostable.
Chris Roeder, International Paper: "It's billions of pounds of
polyethylene that we are using every year and our perspective is if we
can reduce our reliance on petro-chemical plastics and reduce our
greenhouse gas emissions, we can reclaim these products through
composting systems and recycling systems, that we're better off for
that."
There are limits to some of these new products. Scientists are still
trying to work out issues such as how to heat them in the microwave or
how to improve their strength. Industry insiders say those advancements
will make it to market sooner or later.
Written and produced by Ken Miguel
S.F. FIRST
CITY TO BAN PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS
Supermarkets and chain pharmacies will have to use recyclable or
compostable sacks
Charlie Goodyear, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Paper or plastic? Not anymore in San Francisco.
The city's Board of Supervisors approved groundbreaking legislation
Tuesday to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets in about
six months and large chain pharmacies in about a year.
The ordinance, sponsored by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, is the first such
law in any city in the United States and has been drawing global
scrutiny this week.
"I am astounded and surprised by the worldwide attention," Mirkarimi
said. "Hopefully, other cities and other states will follow suit."
Fifty years ago, plastic bags -- starting first with the sandwich bag --
were seen in the United States as a more sanitary and environmentally
friendly alternative to the deforesting paper bag. Now an estimated 180
million plastic bags are distributed to shoppers each year in San
Francisco. Made of filmy plastic, they are hard to recycle and easily
blow into trees and waterways, where they are blamed for killing marine
life. They also occupy much-needed landfill space.
Two years ago, San Francisco officials considered imposing a 17-cent tax
on petroleum-based plastic bags before reaching a deal with the
California Grocers Association. The agreement called for large
supermarkets to reduce by 10 million the number of bags given to
shoppers in 2006. The grocers association said it cut back by 7.6
million, but city officials called that figure unreliable and
unverifiable because of poor data supplied by markets.
The dispute led to a renewed interest in outlawing the standard plastic
bag, which Mirkarimi said Tuesday was a "relic of the past." Under the
legislation, which passed 10-1 in the first of two votes, large markets
and pharmacies will have the option of using compostable bags made of
corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper. San Francisco will join a
number of countries, such as Ireland, that already have outlawed plastic
bags or have levied a tax on them. Final passage of the legislation is
expected at the board's next scheduled meeting, and the mayor is
expected to sign it.
The grocers association has warned that the new law will lead to higher
prices for San Francisco shoppers.
"We're disappointed that the Board of Supervisors is going down this
path," said Kristin Power, the association's vice president for
government relations. "It will frustrate recycling efforts and will
increase both consumer and retailer costs. There's also a real concern
about the availability and quality of compostable bags."
Power said most of the group's members operating in San Francisco are
likely to switch to paper bags "simply because of the affordability and
availability issues."
Mirkarimi's legislation is one in a string of environmentally sensitive
measures -- such as outlawing Styrofoam food containers and encouraging
clean-fuel construction vehicles at city job sites -- adopted by the
city in recent months.
"It's really exciting," Jared Blumenfeld, director of the city's
Department of the Environment, said after the vote on Tuesday. "We're
thrilled. It's been a long time in the making."
Blumenfeld said it takes 430,000 gallons of oil to manufacture 100
million bags. Compostable bags can be recycled in the city's green
garbage bins and will make it more convenient for residents to recycle
food scraps, he said.
Recycling of paper bags also is far more active today than it was when
the plastic bag was first introduced to U.S. consumers.
The lone dissenting voice in the board chamber on Tuesday was Supervisor
Ed Jew, who noted that 95,000 small businesses in San Francisco will
continue to use plastic bags. Jew, who in his third month in office has
taken to critiquing his colleagues for being too quick to burden
residents and businesses with new mandates, complained that Mirkarimi's
legislation has taken too much of the board's time.
"We need to move on to address the larger issues in San Francisco," Jew
said shortly before he voted against the ordinance.
Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who introduced amendments this month
that will subject pharmacy chains to the legislation, said many large
businesses in San Francisco already participate in recycling programs.
"The target of this legislation is the bags themselves and improving the
environment," she said.
Plastic bags by the numbers
Roughly the number of plastic shopping bags distributed in San Francisco
each year: 180 million
Amount each bag costs markets, compared with anywhere from 5 to 10 cents
for a biodegradable bag: 2 to 3 cents
Number of nondegradable plastic bags used worldwide annually: 4 trillion
to 5 trillion
Amount of oil needed to produce 100 million nondegradable plastic bags:
430,000 gallons
Source: S.F. Department of the Environment; Worldwatch Institute
E-mail Charlie Goodyear at
cgoodyear@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/28/MNGDROT5QN1.DTL |
