Excellent Packaging & Supply provides biodegradable and recyclable products for food service and beyond.
What is trash? When we’re stuck with a handful of it, the answer seems obvious: Just about anything. Ask yourself what’s recyclable, and the answer seems even more clear. But according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2005 report, we recycle less than 34 percent of plastics, 50 percent of paper and 45 percent of aluminum cans each year. Apparently, consumers still need an easier way to help reduce contributions to landfills. And thanks to businesses like Richmond-based wholesale distributor of packaging solutions, Excellent Packaging & Supply (EPS), we may even learn to value what appears to be trash.
Plastic is traditionally produced using petroleum, and although (according to a recent survey released by Metabolix, Inc.) 72 percent of Americans believe it will dissolve naturally in landfills, the truth is, plastic never will. A study performed in 2001 by San Jose State University found that, in California, “Plastics currently account for approximately 11 percent [of municipal waste], with plastic containers and packaging being the chief source, accounting for more than 11 million tons in 2001 of the total waste generated that year.” City of Oakland Sustainability Coordinator Carol Misseldine told the San Francisco Chronicle in May that plastics that aren’t sent to landfills or recycling centers are transported overseas to be burned because air quality laws there are less stringent.
Napa’s Steve Levine, one of three principal owners of EPS, has been working to educate the public and to carve a successful business out of this plastics predicament. Says Levine, “We have to start to value our waste, culturally, in a way that we don’t now—because it does have value, if for nothing else than heat power. It’s a green energy source.” EPS is among a growing number of U.S. manufacturers and distributors that have identified a plastic substitute with few, if any, negative environmental consequences: Bioresins, plastics derived from plant-based matter, including corn, potatoes, soy, rice straw, sugarcane bagasse—the fibrous pulp left behind after sugarcane is crushed and the sugar is extracted—and even grapevines. Such a discovery could transform the way we approach our regional environment. Protection, still a key priority, should work hand in hand with ridding the environment of its natural overgrowth—underbrush, grasses, agricultural waste—that would otherwise be burned.
Levine and his partners, Allen King of Berkeley and Calistoga resident Greg Stevens, are the ideal candidates to lead businesses and the public toward supporting bio-based packaging, having made the transition themselves. Levine and King each have more than 25 years of experience (Stevens has 10) distributing petroleum-based packaging to the food service industry. Timing and technology played a significant role in refocusing their business in a sustainable direction.
After laying the groundwork in December 2003, the three men opened the doors at EPS in January 2004, distributing traditional packaging to customers. Then, says Levine, “Within about six months, we started seeing new products coming into the market, like corn plastic cups and hinged containers.” Soon, customers ranging from restaurants to retailers and more started to request specialty food service products made from waste materials such as sugarcane bagasse.
Customer demand may have stimulated the company’s first foray into working with products made with bioresins, but it was Levine and the EPS staff that educated themselves, found a relatively undetected niche in the world of food service packaging and reprioritized their product focus. Taking this newfound knowledge a step further, Levine’s savvy team began working with both domestic and Asian manufacturers to develop and distribute a wide variety of sustainable packaging products for use in the United States. As a distributor of sustainable products, EPS has become a preferred vendor for many of the nation’s biggest businesses, colleges and universities. The de Young Museum in San Francisco, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the Getty Villa in Los Angeles are all clients.
From vegetable to plastic
The process of creating polymers from corn that isn’t food grade started in the 1950s when dissolving sutures and other products were invented, using less than 50 percent of corn starch content. Today, two of the most often-used base elements in creating bioresins are corn and sugarcane bagasse.
Polylactic acid, or PLA, is made from corn. One challenge when using PLA corn plastic is that it isn’t heat tolerant above 110 degrees, so it’s largely used for cold item packaging, for goods such as salads. According to EPS, “During the process of creating PLA, sugar is extracted from corn and then fermented into lactic acid to which enzymes are added. This converts the sugar concoction into PLA. The PLA takes the form of resin beads that are used to manufacture a variety of clear, hard plastic products.” One great benefit of using PLA corn plastics is that the product can be composted and used to grow more corn.
The second most popular organic base, sugarcane bagasse, was until recently considered waste, and it was burned at manufacturing sites. In the creation of biodegradable packaging, the fiber is processed into pulp then pressure-formed into a mold. The resulting containers are microwavable and freezer safe. The more sugarcane bagasse used to produce bioresins, the less will be burned in the fields (meaning less CO2 sent into the atmosphere). And once disposed of, the packaging will break down into a natural compost. “Right here in Sonoma County, Sonoma Compost runs the Green Waste Composting program,” says Levine. “They’re now willing to compost for a private company who moves to a completely compostable waste stream. The large vision is to have a completely compostable waste stream, collected and composted.”
A savvy, budding business
EPS has intentionally grown its customer base and product lines slowly, to reflect the pace at which it learns to balance public interest, manufacturing and product development. Says Levine, “It wasn’t a quick thing—it can’t be quick. You have a situation where, at any given moment, you have more demand than supply. So they have to go back and forth, which has occurred on a fairly healthy level: increase demand, increase production, increase demand, increase production. I think if we see any significant turn toward this type of packaging, that’s when we’ll have to produce it domestically.”
For now, EPS offers a range of products from six different lines: NatureWorks’ PLA, which is made of corn, uses 50 percent less fossil fuel to produce and can be composted; BagasseWare, a line made of sugarcane bagasse that’s a cost-effective replacement for Styrofoam and can be composted; Ecotainer, a line of paper hot cups and soup containers that are lined with PLA and are fully compostable; Spudware, EPS’ memorably named line of cutlery made with 80 percent potato starch and 20 percent vegetable oil, which is durable and can be exposed to high heat; and Biobag, 100 percent biodegradable and compostable bags made from Mater-Bi, an organically derived material. EPS also offers a wide range of traditional food service packaging, including paper and plastic products. The existence of these biodegradable, compostable and recyclable food service doppelgangers must often seem a miracle to those looking for green alternatives.
Still, products from EPS have to overcome setbacks in developing technology, cultural barriers and issues of cost before they even reach the customer. “We’ve developed a variety of products, very mundane products,” recounts Levine. “We wanted to have corn straws that were wrapped in paper. At first we couldn’t get any corn straws, then we could get them and they weren’t wrapped. But, America wants wrapped straws. So we kept asking and, about six months ago, we got wrapped straws. We’re pushing our manufacturers to develop the capabilities to produce what this market wants.”
Levine add that additional challenges to the process of developing bioplastics include developing a way to add logos or designs to the products and creating a standard “bioplastic” mark within the industry to alert consumers and municipal recyclers that these products should be treated differently during and after collection. He hopes these issues, along with a long list of logistical issues regarding recycling and composting, will be addressed with future study and legislation.
A hint of future changes
The technology to process biomass into biodegradable products is ready. The cost of oil has become high enough that producing petroleum-based plastics is only moderately cheaper—approximately 30 percent—than producing bioresins. In time, bioresin production’s key costs—namely shipping, product development and developing new technologies—should shrink.
Levine believes the often-quoted environmental mantra, “Think Globally, Act Locally,” is shifting to reflect people’s growing investment in local programs such as composting and buying from locally owned businesses. “I think we’re moving from the ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’ to ‘Think Locally, Act Locally.’ We should utilize what’s in our backyards, we just haven’t yet. So a move in that direction—having municipal composting—is crucial to having the compostable packaging. Most people don’t know they have the choice. People don’t know plastic is made from fossil fuel. When they become aware of where these things come from, and think, ‘Wow, that’s not good!’ they know they have an alternative.”
In addition to EPS’ food service products, a wide variety of alternatives to petroleum-based plastics are available. Some other products that can be successfully made out of corn polymers are fabrics, cosmetics, liquid detergents, boat hulls, ski boots and airport runway de-icers.
The de Young Museum in San Francisco has been purchasing EPS products since 2006. David Wilson, general manager of the de Young’s café, says the public is supportive of the museum’s use of PLA-based plastics. “The public is very excited to see the bioproducts, to-go containers, Spudware and beverage cups,” he says. “We’ve had many people ask for information on the products so they can implement biodegradable products [at work].” EPS clients like the de Young often act as unofficial educators for bio-based products as a whole. As Wilson notes, customers sometimes have difficulty “understanding the difference between ‘compostable’ and ‘recyclable.’ Signage and a well-trained café staff is part of ongoing customer education.”
Levine understands the importance of connecting with people, and EPS has wisely taken a proactive stance, creating a series of educational materials including posters to explain the lifecycle of its products. They’re displayed on-site as a helpful reference point. “I like to tell people our posters are hanging in the de Young!” jokes Levine.
Of course, San Francisco’s polystyrene ordinance has been in effect since 2006, and its recent ban on petroleum-based bags went into effect June 1. Oakland’s green food packaging ordinance has been in effect since the beginning of 2007, and as of this writing, the city planned to meet in late June to consider its own petroleum-based bag ordinance. Of these recent changes to the business environment, Levine says, “San Francisco’s stepping up. All of a sudden, we’re seeing bags in the market that are costing a third of what they did before they instituted the ban. Entrepreneurs are stepping up—or big companies are saying ‘OK, here’s a market; let’s produce these materials.’ We’re seeing new bioresins come into the market to be made into those materials. It’s a very healthy, active and dynamic situation when you have scientists, business people, economists, and the government and the schools all working together. I think that really makes up this wave of energy that’s pushing forward toward green and toward sustainability.”
The market for sustainable products is poised to spread far beyond Bay Area-based environmentalists. In addition to legislation passed in San Francisco and Oakland, currently more than 14 other West and East Coast cities have passed similar bans on polystyrene. “In the next five to 10 years, there are a lot of things that will come into play,” says Levine. “Not the least of which are the laws being passed to make us deal with agricultural waste. And when you factor in the job creation by using local agricultural waste materials, composting them and putting them back into the fields, it’s a very positive and sustainable system we’re aiming for.”
For more information, you can contact Steve Levine at steve@excellentpackaging.com, or go to www.excellentpackaging.com.
