Over the past week, Whole Foods has got its share of press and blogosphere coverage on its discontinued practice of offering plastic bags at checkout. Slated to take effect by Earth Day (April 22), the company’s move has received a fair amount of criticism along with acclaim, since plastic bags take less energy to produce than paper bags (to be offered alongside Whole Foods’ reusable bags) and generate less waste.
The New York Times and Treehugger examine these issues and conclude that the announcement is still positive and noteworthy. The reasons cited are the paper bags Whole Foods uses happen to be made of recycled paper and the influence the grocer chain can yield to encourage mega-marts to reconsider the bag issue. Hopefully, it can also encourage more of us to remember to do the shopping version of BYOB.
Now I’ve done a quick summary of the recent buzz, I want to consider another green move Whole Foods has made which seems to have received less fanfare. Upon my recent visit, I noted the Bowery (NYC) location was also using hot foods and salad containers made from compostable materials.
I’m actually not familiar with “fibers of cattails” (not to be confused with “cat tails” since that might not be so animal-friendly) as an eco-friendly material. I am, however, impressed with the refridgerator- and microwave-safe properties of these to-go containers.
The boxes actually remind me of a similar product I was introduced to at the Columbia Social Enterprise Conference in October (2007). The product, VerTerra, is heat-resistant, disposable (but reusable), biodegradable dinnerware made from fallen, dried, organically-grown palm tree leaves. At the conference, I spoke to the founder, Michael Dwork, who at the time was only targeting the catering and event planning market due to the more favorable margins. I have since looked forward to VerTerra’s mass market debut, not only because the dinnerware is environmentally-friendly and healthy (free of bleach, plastic, wax, and chemicals), but because the company is committed to creating fair labor jobs and conditions for its craftspeople in south Asia. VerTerra is truly a triple bottom line company.
I’m not sure where Whole Foods has sourced its takeout containers, but I would be curious to know. I’d also like to know how the cattails’ fiber stacks up against other touted green materials. I’ll save the answers and accompanying research for another post…
March 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
LaTeisha,
Thank you for taking note of our efforts to create an attractive and environmentally friendly product. We appreciate the effort you made to educate those who care about our products.
We are building out a new site and would appreciate if you could send a pdf so we can have both a link and formatted article to give you the credit you deserve for this piece.
Best,
Michael Dwork
CEO
VerTerra LTD
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Today, I choose the new cattail container to hold my lunch from my local Whole Foods prepared food bar, attracted by the concept of a sustainable source that also puts an increased short-term commercial value on wetlands (where else would you grow cattails?).
The sign (shown in the post) went on to say “Ask about our in-store composting program.” Which I did, to blank stares at the check out.
They sent over the manager who explained that while most of the Whole Foods stores have an in-store composting program, theirs was stalled by the want of a farm/composting facility that would agree to *take away* the large quantity of compostable material they generate every day. There are at least two organic farms within the Hartford metro area that compost (Old Maid Farms in Glastonbury and Urban Oaks in New Britain), and several traditional farms, but none that can handle this stores’ needs.
This logistical and transport issue is one that begs for some solution, perhaps an online exchange that would connect producers like Whole Foods with composters able to handle the volume and collect the stuff.
Doug Simpson, Hartford (Wetherfield, actually), CT
www.dougsimpson.com/blog