Going green, one “corntainer” at a time

Doma is a cozy cafe in Manhattan's West Village where people mingle over lattes and laptops. The neighborhood is known for its distinctive eateries, but this establishment is notable because three months ago it stopped using conventional plastic drinking straws and takeout utensils in favor of ones made of corn and potato.

“You can’t even detect it,” said Dana James, a frequent patron, as she waited in line for an iced coffee. “The straws are identical to normal straws. I don’t know how they make plastic out of veggies, but I do know customers appreciate the change.”

While the market for bio-based plastics is small, it is growing --both domestically and internationally. Recent declines in the cost of producing bioplastic have made it more competitive with petroleum-based plastics.

Organic restaurants and eco-conscious shoppers aren’t the only ones fueling this trend. Chain grocers like Wal-Mart and Wild Oats are finding that “corntainers” can become cost-effective because they help reduce waste and boost the retailer's image.

Bio-based plastics are most commonly made from corn. Corn sugar is converted into an acid resin that manufacturers can mold into a variety of food and beverage containers, wrappers and utensils. Bioplastics can also be made from potatoes, sugar cane, cassava and other crops.

This natural plastic is nearly identical in look and feel to conventional plastic. The significant difference is that these products break down into organic components within a few months while conventional plastic degrades slowly and accumulates in landfills.

But critics of bioplastic point out that it must be sent to a composting facility to break down quickly. Relatively few Americans have access, or are aware they have access, to composting outlets, and landfills lack the air and heat necessary for decomposition, according to the nonprofit environmental group Co-op America.

"There are an increasing number of cities and local organizations that are incorporating composting into their recycling routine," said Robert Wallace, a spokesman for Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit group dedicated to community action. "It comes down to awareness. People are becoming more conscious of their day-to-day choices."

Wallace said that businesses were finally starting to see the bottom line advantage of recycling and composting.

New composting facilities are being built as demand for them increases.

The Environmental Protection Agency is pressing for a 35 percent national recycling and composting rate by 2008. San Francisco stands out among environmentally conscious urban centers with its comprehensive waste management program. The city's environmental initiative has set a goal of reaching a 75 percent recycling and composting rate by 2010.

“The real challenge is to get cities to be more like San Francisco,” said Steven Mojo, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute in New York. “The question is whether other cities can begin to understand that food scraps are something that can be diverted to compost facilities instead of ending up in landfills.”

When sports fans in Oakland, Calif., pitch their partially eaten hot dogs into the same bins as their natural plastic plates, the waste is sent to composting facilities. The Oakland McAfee Coliseum, home to the Oakland Athletics and Oakland Raiders, is the first major stadium in America to “go green.” According to the maintenance director, George Valerga, composting and recycling have helped cut the stadium's annual garbage bill by 25 percent.

“I think our staff has started to take pride in what they’re doing when they clean the facility,” he said. “We’re hoping this will have an impact and an influence on facilities worldwide.”

During the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, food and drink vendors used bioplastics. Cereplast, a company in Hawthorne, Calif., that designs and manufactures bioplastics, supplied cups and utensils for the games, which were then disposed of in composting facilities.

Frederic Scheer, founder and CEO of Cereplast, recently returned from Beijing where he met with the 2008 Olympic Committee to discuss how to make the Beijing games more eco-conscious. “There is no reason why the 2008 games shouldn’t be the most environmentally friendly games yet,” he said.

Scheer said that in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, a box of 1,000 biodegradable utensils cost about $60. Now, the same box would be about $10. “That’s a significant difference, and it highlights the changing economics of our industry,” he said.

But he doesn’t foresee bio-based plastics replacing conventional plastic anytime soon; there are still kinks to be worked out. High temperatures cause certain resins to break down--a fork left in a piping hot baked potato, for example, can soften and bow within minutes.

“Are our products perfect?” asked Scheer. “The answer is no, they are not perfect yet. Will they be perfect? They will. It's a question of time and technology.

“People will tell you it's a small industry,” he added. “It's true, it is a small industry. But it's an industry that is growing very, very fast. You’ll see."

E-mail: brk2101@columbia.edu