Have you ordered takeout from a restaurant or grocery store lately? On a recent visit to Greenbrae’s Mollie Stone’s Market, I grabbed a bowl of lentil-vegetable soup for lunch. After checking out, my search for a spoon led me to a Preserve cutlery dispenser. I pushed a lever and out popped a sanitary, single-use, post-consumer number 5 100% recycled plastic spoon. Although Marin’s waste haulers do not accept number 5 plastics, the product is, theoretically, endlessly recyclable. Place it in plastics recycling, and companies like Preserve infinitely recycle it. (More on plastic reuse in this story.)
The product stream for upcycled plastics, however, is changing. California Senate Bill 54 aims to significantly reduce single-use plastic packaging by requiring producers to make all packaging recyclable or compostable by 2032. Also known as the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, SB 54 shifts the responsibility of managing plastic waste to the companies that produce it, insisting that producers fund the collection and recycling of their packaging. While the ramifications for consumers are still evolving, Marin businesses are changing their practices now.
Time for Straws Made from Sugarcane, Coffee Grounds and Corn
Saul Ranella, beverage director for Hog Island Oyster Co.’s restaurants, began experimenting with biodegradable straws in 2014. As part of their partnership with the Surfrider Foundation and commitment to ocean conservation, they trialed a paper straw. “They had an appealing look but lacked durability, particularly in acidic cocktails,” Ranella says. He tested hay and agave straws and even went through a no-straw phase before settling on straws made from sugarcane and coffee grounds from Cycle of Life Natural Products. “Sugarcane’s natural moisture-resistant properties make these straws more durable in various cocktails without compromising quality,” Ranella says.
Industrially compostable, heat resistant to 140 degrees F and BPI-certified, Ranella says the straws closely resemble the durability of plastic without the environmental impact. And the cost? “These are slightly more expensive than plastic but it’s minimal compared to the long-term damage plastic pollution causes to our oceans,” Ranella says.
Responding to county mandates for sustainable takeout containers and straws, Chris Davis, owner of Corte Madera’s boba tea and coffee shop Teaspoon, uses bamboo fiber straws. “You can leave the straw in the cup for six hours,” Davis says. “It’ll get damp after one to two hours of use, but it stays pretty rigid.” At the San Rafael and Mill Valley locations of Banh Mi Zon, owner Hong Phan also prefers bamboo fiber straws. “We use 100% compostable straws which make our customers very happy,” Phan told me.
Phan has received a complaint or two about straws that break if pushed too firmly through a boba cup’s top seal but not enough to consider other materials. Unlike plastic straws, straws made from bamboo fiber, sugarcane, or even corn do not contain the PFAS or other chemicals and additives that can leach into the body or the earth when disposed of. “Our straws are naturally degraded by water, sunshine and soil, in as little as 30 days from initial use,” says Elle Smith, sales manager at Corn Next, which makes straws and other products to replace single-use plastics. Their patented material, CornNext-17, is made of corn starch, water and natural enzymes. “No plastic, no PLA and no resin.”
Christopher Revell, the president of Natura Est, an Irvine-based maker of sugarcane straws, noted the shelf life of sugarcane straws. “We can’t warehouse them forever like plastic straws,” Revell says. A 12- to 18-month shelf life is standard. Beyond that, his straws, which come in sizes designed for sipping water, smoothies or boba drinks, get a little brittle. He pursued certification from the Biodegradable Products Institute, preferring his customers to know what they are putting in their mouths. “Some compostable products do not have BPI and you just don’t know what they are putting into their straw,” he says.
Make That Certified Compostable Straws
A member-based advocacy, education and compostable certification organization, BPI is something of a communication tool. Its certification allows everyone from suppliers to users to compost facilities to know if that straw or clamshell or spoon is truly compostable. “Our certification allows a producer to make a true and clear claim backed with scientific evidence,” says Margaret Eldridge, BPI’s certification director. “It cuts through the greenwashing.”
The compostables industry is evolving and the terminology can be confusing. “Plastics” typically refers to synthetic materials and are often derived from petroleum or natural gas. “Bioplastics,” on the other hand, are plastics made from renewable biological material such as plants, waste or microorganisms.
Biodegradation describes a natural process where organic matter, such as bioplastics or fiber, is broken down or decomposed by microorganisms. It is a sought-after characteristic in the industry — the faster the better for environmental sustainability. Bioplastics, such as PLA, which is derived from renewable plant-based resources like corn starch, break down faster than fiber at a commercial operation because the microorganisms that degrade the product “do it faster than they break down fiber,” says Eldridge. This distinction is lost on Marin waste haulers who do not accept PLA but do accept fiber in the compost bin. The onus of separating bioplastics, which go in the garbage, and fiber, which can be composted — for the moment — remains on the consumer.
“It is really hard to get consumers educated and even harder when there is patchwork legislation around the Bay Area,” says Deven Young, vice president of sales at World Centric. That patchwork makes it very challenging to get a bioplastic or fiber product into the proper waste bin. It also means more companies are turning to biomass such as sugarcane fiber and other natural fibers, avoiding the bioplastics waste stream entirely.
World Centric sells paper straws to Taco Bell and other quick-service restaurants in areas where compostables are mandated. They used to sell PLA straws, but “we stopped as they were not ending up in the compost stream,” Young says. Like other companies I spoke with, World Centric is aiming for “marine biodegradable,” or a product that biodegrades into pieces smaller than 2 millimeters in just three months, and will be completely biodegraded after six months. As of this writing, there is no certification for marine biodegradability.
Cutlery Is Transitioning, Too
The terminology is the same for compostable cutlery. About 10 years ago, World Centric transitioned to TPLA or talc-injected PLA (which aids heat-resistance, a.k.a. “high thermal stability”). And, says Young, “It’s still the most popular choice. Customers like the plastic mouthfeel.” Without the plastic, of course. They also make FSC-certified, bio-based bamboo cutlery with no lamination or bioplastic. A “no-tree paper, dipped with bioplastic,” with the mouthfeel of plastic, is coming soon. Customers, used to the smooth feel of plastic gliding across their tongue, are demanding it.
Other companies are jumping into the space. Los Angeles-based Repurpose, available for sale at Whole Foods, Mollie Stone’s Markets and elsewhere, produces a line of cutlery made entirely from leftover rice husks. Though there is a waste stream of rice husks in the United States, it is not yet large enough to meet Repurpose’s needs, according to CEO and founder Lauren Gropper. Better Earth has produced commercially compostable PLA cutlery for years. Their new bamboo cutlery is BPI-certified and industrially composts in 60–90 days. A microscopic, food-grade coating is applied to each utensil, eliminating bamboo’s natural abrasion and leading to a smooth mouth feel and firmer rigidity. “It’s smooth like plastic,” says Mill Valley’s Mark Marinozzi, vice president of marketing and partnership development at Better Earth.
Christina Mueller is a long-time Bay Area food writer. She hails from the East Coast and has spent way too much time in South America and Europe. She discovered her talent as a wordsmith in college and her love of all things epicurean in grad school. She has written for Condé Nast Contract Publishing, Sunset, and the Marin Independent Journal, among others. She volunteers with California State Parks and at her childrens’ schools, and supports the Marin Audubon Society, PEN America, and Planned Parenthood. When she is not drinking wine by a fire, she is known to spend time with her extended family.
