This year's Parish Picnic used compostable plates, cups and utensils: (2013-09-08) (Written by Stephen Lavender)
The St. Francis Parish Picnic always offers great food and fun. This year's picnic celebrated creation and the spirit of community in a new way. The Picnic Committee selected compostable plates, cups and utensils over conventional paper and plastic products. Why is this important?
Single use items such as plates, cups and utensils bring their manufacturing history to our picnic. After mere moments of use they leave the party for an unseen afterlife. Let's consider both ends of their picnic appearance.
Conventional paper plates begin as leftovers from paper production. Managed forests grow for years to generate pulp products. Ingredients including cellulose, oil (think petroleum), resin and wood chemicals are assembled into plates. Plastic utensils and those nasty Styrofoam cups also have origins in petroleum and other chemicals. None of these items are compostable. Producing them increases the demand for petroleum and generates greenhouse gases. Their disposal initiates a VERY long, unproductive existence in a landfill.
Our compostable plates are formed from bagasse and wheatstraw fibers. Bagasse remains after removing juice from sugarcane while wheatstraw is the remnant after extracting wheat grain and chaff. Both fibers are annually renewable. Compostable plates have no petroleum products among their contents.
Compostable utensils and cold beverage cups each claim polylactide, a corn based material as their primary ingredient. Talc is added to polylactide for rigidity in creating utensils. Corn is another annually renewable crop and these products too are fully compostable.
The Picnic Committee considered these questions before making their selection: What's the impact of production and delivery on our environment? What's the length of this product's useful life? Can it be recycled or disposed of responsibly?
Congratulations to our Picnic Committee for playing an important role in protecting the gift of creation!
--------------------------
Single use items such as plates, cups and utensils bring their manufacturing history to our picnic. After mere moments of use they leave the party for an unseen afterlife. Let's consider both ends of their picnic appearance.
Conventional paper plates begin as leftovers from paper production. Managed forests grow for years to generate pulp products. Ingredients including cellulose, oil (think petroleum), resin and wood chemicals are assembled into plates. Plastic utensils and those nasty Styrofoam cups also have origins in petroleum and other chemicals. None of these items are compostable. Producing them increases the demand for petroleum and generates greenhouse gases. Their disposal initiates a VERY long, unproductive existence in a landfill.
Our compostable plates are formed from bagasse and wheatstraw fibers. Bagasse remains after removing juice from sugarcane while wheatstraw is the remnant after extracting wheat grain and chaff. Both fibers are annually renewable. Compostable plates have no petroleum products among their contents.
Compostable utensils and cold beverage cups each claim polylactide, a corn based material as their primary ingredient. Talc is added to polylactide for rigidity in creating utensils. Corn is another annually renewable crop and these products too are fully compostable.
The Picnic Committee considered these questions before making their selection: What's the impact of production and delivery on our environment? What's the length of this product's useful life? Can it be recycled or disposed of responsibly?
Congratulations to our Picnic Committee for playing an important role in protecting the gift of creation!
--------------------------
