Packaging. It’s everywhere and is one of the items that most frustrates people as they try to determine if it is trash, recyclable or compostable. The environmental impacts are huge so it is encouraging to see that people are focusing on solutions. As we head into the New Year I wanted to share some inspiring examples of how people are creatively solving our trash and landfill problems and making a difference for the environment.
One example involves your morning cup of coffee if you use the Keurig-type single serving coffee maker that requires little pods. While super convenient and easy to use, each year we consume almost 10 BILLION of these pods….enough to circle the Earth 11 times when stacked end to end! And these pods are not recyclable or compostable which means all of these plastic pods filled with coffee grounds end up in the landfill. Happily, Hills Brothers just developed a compostable coffee pod called the PurPod 100 TM that is 100% compostable. Click here for more info.
Ecovative is a company that is focused on developing environmentally sustainable materials. One of their designs is called Myco Foam which is packaging made from mushrooms that can easily be composted either in our backyards or in your compost bin. Their TED talk video is very inspiring. Click here to watch. They are also developing environmentally friendly building materials out of mushroom mycelium!
We can all feel good about saving marine mammals, birds and fish from being trapped by plastic 6-pack rings. A small brewery has come up with a great solution…edible 6-pack rings made from spent brewing grain! Check out their video here. Share this with some local brewers and let’s see if we can’t get a wave of support to help bring the price down and make this packaging the new normal.