@ http://www.youtube.com/miraculouscoffee

Greenfest’s a great example on handling trash at big events — They’ll have a volunteer at each trash area, making sure things’re put in the right bin and helping out people who may be confused –

Great blog!

This is good, of course. BUT: They use them regardless of whether you want to stay or go. I’d much rather have a glass cup, please!

Also, I’ve noticed that these corn-ware (or potato-ware, depending) are highly variable in terms of stiffness and durability. I’ve had forks you could tie in a knot, and cup lids so stiff you couldn’t stick a straw in! (Or maybe it was a traditional plastic lid, incompatible with my bio-ware straw. Or something like that.)

I think these are the early days of this kind of bio-ware, and I expect we’ll see improvements and greater consistency soon enough.

—————————

On another note, the City of San Francisco requires that all major street fairs be zero-waste. I volunteered for the Folsom Street Fair for several years, and towards the end they were trying to meet this goal by using these cups for composting, rather than recycling. Not sure if it was more succesful–it’s hard to get hundreds of thousands of drunks to sort their rubbish! Some attendees complained about the “flimsy” cups, but that didn’t stop them from ordering more beers!