If you are concerned about that plastic garbage island floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean estimated at twice the size of Texas, consider the plate \u2014 the plastic one you use and then toss into the garbage. Or the plastic straw that goes into your drink \u2014 or the 500 million that Americans use each day.<\/p>\n
Environmental concerns are leading more cities around the United States, including Malibu, California, and Seattle, to ban the use of various single-serve plastic food-service items. As business owners, specifically restaurants and caterers, look for alternatives to plastic, a creative entrepreneurial boom is uncovering unconventional design approaches.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t want to wash your plates after meals? Now you can eat them instead<\/p>\n
Warsaw-based manufacturer Biotrem is making more than 10 million pieces of biodegradable disposable (single-use) tableware and cutlery that compost \u2014 without need for industrial composting facilities \u2014 within 30 days. For those who can\u2019t wait the 30 days, these wares are also \u201caccidentally\u201d edible. The tableware is made from wheat bran, a sustainable, plant-based resource available in many regions of the world. The cutlery is made from fully biodegradable PLA bioplastic and wheat bran.<\/p>\n
The idea to use wheat bran occurred in the late 1990s to Jerzy Wysocki, whose family\u2019s milling business dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Wysocki was looking for uses for wheat bran, a byproduct in the wheat grain milling process, other than animal feed or compost. The family milling business was small and couldn\u2019t compete with large mills taking over the market in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He gave up traditional milling and bet it all on the new model.<\/p>\n
According to Biotrem, one kilo of wheat bran products generates in total \u2014 considering the whole wheat cultivation process, transportation, processing and utilisation \u2014 around 1.3 kg of CO2; 1 kg of polystyrene disposable plates or cups generates in total around 8.5 kg of CO2.<\/p>\n
Biotrem pricing may be too high for some small businesses \u2014 US$5 (MSRP) for a 10-pack of plates and US$30 (MSRP) for a 100-pack. But Biotrem marketing specialist Artur Bednarz said the comparison to be made is not to typical paper or plastic single-use tableware, but to pricing of other plant\/bio-based tableware, with which Biotrem is \u201cpretty much on the same level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its business is booming, and Biotrem expects pricing to come down as production ramps up in multiple locations. Biotrem\u2019s long-term business plan is spreading the technology behind its production of bio-based tableware and packaging outside Poland, which should lead to lower production costs, Bednarz said. European distributors \u2014 such as large wholesalers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia \u2014 are ordering \u201creally large quantities,\u201d according to Bednarz, mostly used by street-food joints, restaurants, event organisers and caterers. The company, which spent more than US$5.9 million on research and development to date, including support from the European Union and local authorities, is currently planning investments in the expansion of the current production plant and launching new facilities abroad.<\/p>\n
US efforts to move away from plastic are gaining
\nBiotrem just picked up its first U.S.-based distributor, Coral Gables, Florida-based Veri Food, in January of this year. \u201cWe\u2019re selling everything Biotrem produces. It\u2019s going well,\u201d said Roberto Cavallini, marketing manager at Veri Food. \u201cIt\u2019s like Kellogg\u2019s [cereal] that you have for breakfast.\u201d While the jury is still out with humans, Cavallini said, \u201cWe did some tests with fish, and they eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said actions taken by cities around the United States, such as Malibu, California, will be a boon to this industry. He has made presentations to officials in Southern Florida, including public school authorities.<\/p>\n
On June 1 a strict ban will go into effect in Malibu on single-use straws, stirrers and utensils. Plastic bags are already banned. Alternatives made from corn starch or corn sugar from the plastics industry are not allowed, as they don\u2019t compost quickly or without industrial facilities. Starbucks\u2019 hometown of Seattle has a similar ban going into effect on July 1.<\/p>\n
The increasing focus from municipalities is leading to some creative thinking from business owners \u2014 in particular, restaurant owner Bob Morris, who owns popular Malibu spot Paradise Cove Beach Cafe, which serves 600,000 patrons annually. He found out seven weeks ago that the ban was coming. As an \u201cold surfer,\u201d Morris said he agrees with the ban, given the state of the world\u2019s oceans. But his business couldn\u2019t figure out a way to use glass or stainless-steel straws in a sanitary way, and paper was too weak and didn\u2019t compost fast enough to use in straws. ( McDonald\u2019s is testing paper straws in the U.K.)<\/p>\n
It took Morris waking up in the middle of the night to find the answer. \u201cI woke up and said, \u2018I think I have the answer.\u2019 I had seen this piece of pasta in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pasta he saw was in the shape of a straw and was sold in a food market in Santa Monica. He thought it might work for a straw one day. That day came quickly. Morris said, \u201cWe call it \u2018The Amazing Pasta Straw.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is an uncooked piece of pasta that works for up to four hours in any cocktail. The restaurant has already served more than 60,000 drinks using the pasta straw. Based on lack of customer complaints, \u201cI ordered a few million out of Italy. … Flour and water,\u201d Morris said. Business owners who pinch pennies over issues like these are truly pinching pennies, he said, as the cost of using the pasta straws over traditional plastic straws is negligible, a fraction of a penny.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been on the beaches for 50 years, and this is something very necessary to do. When people see the pasta straw, it\u2019s something they can embrace. It\u2019s cheap, it\u2019s available, and for sure it can make a dent in the environmental nightmare we humans have brought upon ourselves,\u201d Morris said. \u201cThe cost of straws in huge volume is three-quarters of a penny. Anyone talking about going out of business is baloney. This is a clean, simple solution to a challenging problem. … I wouldn\u2019t want to be in the plastic straw business now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paradise Cove expects to be ordering, and moving, a lot more pasta straws. \u201cPasta has only had one food use for hundreds of years. Now when we\u2019re talking about billions of straws, billions of anything is a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After initial testing with tens of thousands of the restaurant\u2019s patrons, Morris said there was one complaint \u2014 more like a question, about gluten in the straws. (He said experts informed him that gluten is not activated in the pasta until it is cooked.)<\/p>\n
His mind is still racing with ideas. There are other colours of pasta to consider, spinach and beet. Paradise Cove tried \u201cTwizzler straws\u201d for kids in desserts, but that proved to be a bigger issue than gluten. \u201cParents don\u2019t want the kids to have the Twizzlers,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n
But he isn\u2019t focused on that kind of business expansion thinking, at least not yet, though Morris said he has contracted with the Italian pasta manufacturer to sell the Amazing Pasta Straw Company brand worldwide. \u201cLet\u2019s see if it works and spread the message,\u201d Morris said. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to make a million out of it, just trying to get usage of plastic down, and as an old surfer, that\u2019s a good thing. My son says, \u2018Using your noodle.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The anti-plastic straw movement is growing, especially in California.<\/p>\n
Manhattan Beach outside Los Angeles banned all disposable plastics, including straws, and Berkeley is now considering a ban. Restaurants around the country, in cities from San Diego and Huntington Beach, California, to Asbury Park, New Jersey, New York City, and Miami and Bradenton, Florida have pledged to ban straws or withhold them until patrons ask for them, according to a Washington Post report from last year.<\/p>\n
At Biotrem, efforts are also moving ahead to develop some new products, such as cups, ice cream bowls and muffin moulds (and even products that are not meant for food serving), Bednarz said. Its next line of products \u2014 made out of corn bran, cassava by-products or seaweed \u2014 probably won\u2019t be edible at all, he said, though they will retain the environmental features.<\/p>\n
\u201cEdibility is a nice marketing vehicle, but we are using it very carefully,\u201d Bednarz said.<\/p>\n
Wheat is considered one of the strongest allergens, and the main source of gluten, so it is not suitable for people suffering from wheat or gluten allergies and intolerances, and those suffering from Coeliac or Crohn\u2019s diseases,<\/p>\n
He said there has been a correlation between media and social media interest in edible packaging and interest in the company\u2019s products, but Biotrem remains wary of focusing on it. \u201cRecently there is a huge hype around edible food packaging, straws, cutlery or plates, and we won\u2019t be discussing other businesses\u2019 motives, but from our perspective it is a kind of selling point rather than the key feature of our products.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More cities across the United States, including Seattle and Malibu, California, are banning the use of single-serve plastic food-service items like plates and straws, an issue McDonald’s and Starbucks will have to solve.<\/em><\/p>\n As plastic is targeted by environmental and municipal campaigns, restaurants are taking creative approaches to the problem. Would you like a pasta straw with your drink?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you are concerned about that plastic garbage island floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean estimated at twice the size of Texas, consider the plate \u2014 the plastic one you use and then toss into the garbage. Or the plastic straw that goes into your drink \u2014 or the 500 million that Americans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[12458,12239,12388],"supplier":[11763,10017,14541],"class_list":["post-53075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-catering","tag-compostability","tag-tableware","supplier-biotrem","supplier-city-los-angeles","supplier-veri-food-llc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53075"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=53075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}