KPLU Local News
(2010-06-22)
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New compostable food trays - made of corn resin, instead of petroleum based plastic - can be thrown in with all other food waste.
Photo by Bellamy Pailthorp.
Generally, when you think of a progressive northwest city in the greater Pacific NW, Portland Oregon comes to mind, right? They banned Styrofoam two decades ago - in 1990, says chemist Dave Powell, who lives there. And Seattle's ban is just now going into effect, on July 1st. But apparently that's making us the environmental pioneers.
"Seattle's jumped out ahead, for sure," he says.
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The city has banned Styrofoam at restaurants and grocery stores. That has led to the creation of the world's first fully compostable tray for meat, fish and poultry sales. You can toss them into the compost pile along with your other food waste. They're made of cellulose from corn out of of something called PLA - or poly-lactic acid.
"When you take a corn material in lieu of a plastic material that you're using."
Powell is with Pactiv, the company that manufactures them. It's based in Nebraska. He acknowledges there is some controversy about the use of corn for anything except food or feed production. But he says the company hears from customers that they want packing materials that break down and are still sanitary.
The Pacific Northwest region's Cedargrove composting facilities have hot enough processing channels that this new corn resin breaks back into soil in 6 months, whereas Styrofoam basically never decomposes.
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The city says the use of Pactin's resins means Seattle can stop sending 6-thousand tons of plastic and plastic-tainted waste to a landfill in Oregon every year.
Press release announcing compostable tray debut
Resource Venture (Free resource conservation service for Seattle businesses)
Pactiv's website
Visit KPLU's Green Drive Page
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