06/19/2026
Well, That Was Interesting…
I had a day off and I knew it was about time to reorder cups for the café’, so I took the opportunity to find out what was new in food-service packaging from an environmental perspective. So, we’ve been using a PLA (corn starch+) cup from New Roots; the cups and lids work great, which is important; and, they are compostable, but I knew there would always be lingering issues when using a plastic product…
New Roots plants trees with each purchase, but it’s hard to know how much is greenwashing and how much is true as I’m not aware of anyone checking on this. But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. However, some PLA products still have endocrine disrupters in their formulation. These chemicals are found in many places along the food chain, but still, it’s good to minimize our consumption of such products.
When hot liquids touch the surface of a non-PLA cup, for instance, a host of chemicals can enter the liquid. Personally, I would rather have a little corn starch with my coffee, thank you very much! But also, when these products are composted, it enters our food stream, either by animals eating the food grown with the compost or directly by eating vegetables from such compost. All could be cause for concern.
It sort of reminds me of the sunscreen debate. Some feel there are only a few chemicals to look out for, others believe there’s a long list. I’ve personally been opting for reef-safe (just like bug spray, what we put on our skin washes into the waters!), but I should look more closely at what’s going on my skin, I’m sure. Putting bug spray on clothes is one way around it; and certainly avoiding any open cuts is a big way to reduce impact.
So, back to the cup debate: It’s absolutely clear that reusables are the way to go! Stainless steel might be the best, but glass is also perfectly alright. For your health, you might avoid the plastic mugs, but they are still better than disposables, no question.
As my research progressed, two interesting points kept invading my brain: 1) If a product is labeled (and there are only a few of these on the market) as Home Compostable, that seems like a great step in the right direction, and 2) The paper (hot) cups seem cleaner, in general, than the simulated plastic (cold) cups, mainly because the core ingredient is a renewable resource as opposed to chemicals.
Much of this comes down to lesser evils. A fascinating approach would be to use a reusable mug, but, if you forget it that day, which inevitably happens when rushing off to work, you have a small bin at your desk labeled “Home Compostable.” (You would, of course, have to tell the custodial staff not to empty this bin, with the thought that every Friday you could bring it home and toss it in your compost bin with grass clippings and leaves.) I have a Redmon compost bin that I really like.
But, again, the number of Home Compostable products on the market is few and far between. There was one cup I was looking at put out by Greenprint (called Renewacup), but it said the Home Composting certification was pending. I mean, it could be pending for years, so I just had to move on. The other model, of using paper cups with a PLA/corn starch lining for both hot and cold drinks is also a really interesting possibility, and lower impact, from what I’ve read.
Now, consumers would have to accept that their cold drinks would no longer be in a nice clear container with a dome and a straw. I’ve been using bamboo straws and I’ve been pretty happy with what I’ve read about them and they function well. As an aside, there’s lots of crops, aside from trees, that can be used to make packaging; we’re on the threshold of a brave new world.
Returning to my point, one could use paper for both; I really don’t think it would get soggy in the time it takes to drink it. But let’s hold on right there and zoom out for a minute because I think it would help everyone’s understanding. So, the estimate is that nearly 10,000 different chemicals are used in food service packaging. Stunning, I know. We may love chemistry, but there’s some chemistry that we probably could’ve done without!
Companies tend to protect their formulas/ingredients from competitors so they are reluctant to tell us exactly what is in their cup or lid. This is bad for folks like me who have to make decisions! Still, we do get some information. Labs can tell us about metals, endocrine disruptors or microplastics that might remain after composting. Labs can tell us about the inks being used; I personally like the Kraft brown over the white bleached stuff.
Has industry infiltrated some of these certifying organizations? Why yes, they have, but there is still reliable data out there.
So where does that leave us? In the interests of brevity, I’ll just say that I did order more of the PLA/corn starch cups, but only paper this time, thinking I might try to forego the clear plastic PLA stuff and see what consumers think. The Compost Act is floating around in legislative bodies—good old Cory Booker from NJ, my home state, is one of the sponsors. The U.S. Composting Council is leading the charge to get more composting infrastructure nationwide (really, all towns should have a compost heap or two open to residents). I’ll try to post some updates so you know how you can support this important legislation.
But we are going to have to come to some agreement, as a society, about what is safe and what isn’t. Academics and researchers are more than happy to tell you all about different endocrine disruptors or metals or fluorinated compounds (thankfully we are finally moving away from PFAS, though more work needs to be done!), but taking an actual manufacturer cup and discussing its components (before and after composting) is not really happening as far as I can see. And that’s the level of detail we need. It may be that we need two compost piles at every town yard, one for all organic waste and another that is blended organics with compostable food service items. The latter would just be used to grow flowers or for construction fill only.
As a final note, this also seems to be a labeling issue. If manufacturers had to put “contains endocrine disruptors” or “endocrine disruptors remain after composting” on their sales materials, it would be a whole new ballgame. California has been strong on labeling; other states should really follow suit.
Todd Fiorentino is the owner of Poseidon Coffee, a sidewalk café’ or “coffee boat” as he likes to call it. Poseidon is located at Bank Row in Pittsfield, MA in front of the courthouses. Hours: Tu-Fri from 9:10-1:10. At the kiosk he serves espresso drinks… with a splash of corn starch.
