Comments on: Tully’s new cups prove being green ain’t easy

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:14:56 +0000

NatureWorks is doing offsets for the carbon gas neutrality, but they are also using GM corn. Corn itself is a whole nightmare that is too big to cover here. One thing good though is that NatureWorks has an offset program that they don’t seem to advertise. If you take part in (pay for) the offset program, they will buy an equivalent amount of non-GM corn to match the corn they are using for your PLA. Barely any US buyers are taking part in this but it is automatically added to all European orders. Or so I have been told by them. When I called and asked about the whole GMO “problem” they told me I was the first North American manufacturer to even ask about it. If more people knew about it and took part in it, we would be doing more for the anti-GMO movement then people who are just avoiding PLA (see Patagonia’s recent ad).

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:46:33 +0000

Good points, Bryant.

By: Bryant

Bryant — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:34:05 +0000

You might want to ask at least one more question but there are more than the one. Since PLA can breakdown in an industrial compost facility (not in your backyard compost even though this is rarely mentioned on all of these items promoted as compostable and it is heat that is at the heart of this process, how does the PLA lining/coating protect the paper cup from the hot coffee that is higher in temperature than the compost? Well, it won’t. What they are not really telling anybody in any overt way is that it isn’t entirely PLA. You see, the PLA is blended with that most ghastly of substances; petro-based plastic. Ah, just a minor detail lost in the euphoria.

Eric de Place is right on the GHG nuetral claim. The energy statement appears to be accurate but the impression is that the paper cup with this coating uses less energy as a whole than an alternative when it is only using less energy than a paper cup with a polyethylene coating. If you do more research you will find that those paper cups take a lot more energy to produce than a well-known alternative which just happens to be evil incarnate when it comes to environmental PC.

And ask yourself this last question; ” Am I or even a modest number of those who bought the coffee and drank it anywhere other than in the Tlly’s store planning to carry it back to the store for disposal?” If not, where for are those destined? The same place and with the same results.

But hey, we feel better.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:37:04 +0000

Actually, it was big news last winter when Starbucks finally got the FDA to approve recycled paper for beverage cups. I don’t know whether they’re still using petrochemical lining goop (I’m not a big coffee drinker, and I tend to skip disposable cups when I do); I imagine they are, or they’d be trumpeting about it. But still, they’re greener than you give them credit for, and they are big enough that they got the FDA to change its stance on something, which should open up the recycled cup market to smaller companies.

By: Jeanna

Jeanna — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:03:50 +0000

oh sheesh. i’m sleepwalking at work today after halloween night… i meant THEIR plan.
and i call myself a writer.

By: Jeanna

Jeanna — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:55:35 +0000

Tully’s is finally taking a step toward separating themselves from Starbucks, when this whole time they’re plan has been to be just like them. Obviously that hasn’t been working. Now I’d just like to see them liven up that menu and atmosphere of theirs. SO cookie cutter and boring!