Sep 18, 2020
25 billion pieces of plastic. A world where consumption leaves no footprint. Both of these missions are what drive everyone at UrthPact every single day. Every compostable piece we manufacture, every sale we make, brings us closer to these goals. With World CleanUp Day tomorrow, we want to encourage everyone out there to do something for the planet. Pick up trash while on your daily walk, participate in a beach cleanup, or even something as simple as declining a plastic straw with your morning iced coffee and opting for a more sustainable option like reusable or home compostable. Every single person making one small change has the ability to create ripples through a society, and reach further than you could imagine.
When UrthPact was founded, we set a goal of creating a world where consumption leaves no footprint. We recognize that society requires the convenience and use of plastic products, but we want to be able to provide that convenience without putting a burden on the planet. That’s why all of our product lines are compostable–either commercially or home compostable. Each product we sell helps to eliminate the need for their plastic counterparts, therefore reducing the need for plastic products throughout an industry. By providing a cost-effective and planet-healthy alternative, we continue moving towards a world where consumption leaves no footprint.
Not only do we have a goal of consumption without leaving a footprint, but we also set a goal to prevent 25 billion plastic pieces from reaching oceans and landfills. Every article we sell contributes to this goal. As of this week, we had crossed the 8 billion mark on our way to this goal. That’s enough pieces to circle the Earth almost 40 times. And we still have a long way to go. In order to reach the 25 billion mark, we still have to circle the Earth over 80 more times. That’s where all of our partners and customers come in. We truly would never have come this far, or have the ability to reach these goals without them.
So, as you head outside this weekend, take a minute to think about the planet. What can you do on a daily basis to help clean up your neighborhood? Could you switch from disposable plastic bottles to a reusable one? Could you choose paper bags at the grocery store rather than plastic? Maybe order compostable coffee pods instead of buying plastic ones? By making one small change in your daily routine, you just might influence the people around you to make changes too. Participating in World CleanUp Day 2020 is a great place to start your sustainability journey, and a great way to end the Summer of Sustainability. So pick up trash, choose sustainable single-use products, and encourage others to make the healthiest choices for our planet.
Sep 8, 2020
Boston-based American contract manufacturer UrthPact solves the single-use plastic straw problem with their new line of “never soggy,” single-use, home compostable drinking straws that perform “just like plastic.” Along with being home compostable, the straws are also marine-safe. Shipping now, the straws are available for private label brands and distributors to provide superior customer satisfaction to the quick service, restaurant, and other single-use industries.
Sep 8 2020 – LEOMINSTER, MA: UrthPact–a world leader in compostable bioplastic manufacturing–is now shipping their new line of home compostable drinking straws. The straws are engineered in partnership with Danimer Scientific, another world leader and developer of compostable bioplastic materials. With capacity in the billions for their first year, UrthPact will reduce the environmental impact of the single-use plastics industry, and put a dent in the 142 billion plastic straws used yearly in the United States alone.
The innovative straws are made with Danimer’s Scientific’s signature biopolymer NodaxTM PHA, which has been certified home compostable by TUV Austria’s OK compost HOME protocol. The material is a revolutionary step in the fight against plastic pollution from single-use products, as it is certified to compost in any environment on Earth in under a year, including landfill and marine conditions. UrthPact is the only contract manufacturer worldwide currently working to partner with nationwide and international brands, distributors, and other private-label organizations. The goal is to help expand their partners’ single-use product offerings and increase sustainability by carrying the home compostable straws under their own brands.
By addressing customer satisfaction and environmental benefits, UrthPact’s straws top all current single-use alternatives. They provide a superior drinking experience to paper straws, and are more environmentally friendly than other bioplastics like PLA (polylactic acids). They perform exactly as you’d expect a single-use plastic straw to–but without any of the environmental consequences.
As a USA-based manufacturer, UrthPact takes pride in providing products that are 100% Made in the USA. “Knowing exactly where and how your products are being made matters now more than ever,” says UrthPact CEO, Paul Boudreau. “Consumers are looking for an American-made product, and we’re here to help you provide that to your customers.” UrthPact’s facilities are also Safe Quality Food (SQF) certified, placing food safety and customer satisfaction at the top of their priority list, guaranteeing a contaminant-free and high-quality product.
“Home compostable straws are only the beginning,” Boudreau says. “PHA is a revolutionary new material in the world of bioplastics and has the ability to truly change the landscape of the single-use industry over the next 10 years. Single-usage was never the problem. The problem was we chose to use a material that was designed to last forever to make products only meant to be used for 5 minutes. With Mother Nature’s materials and our engineering expertise, we’ve truly solved the single-use plastic problem.”
Since its foundation in 2013, UrthPact’s goal has been to create a world Where Consumption Leaves No Footprint™. Taking their knowledge of the plastics industry, along with the mindset to save the planet, Boudreau and his team of engineers have created a wide range of compostable product lines, including coffee packaging, cutlery, and now straws. Straws will be the first home compostable product added to the portfolio, to be followed shortly by home compostable cutlery. They’re continuing to work towards preventing 25 billion plastic parts from reaching oceans and landfills. That’s enough parts to circle the globe 122 times.
UrthPact welcomes private-label brands and distributors to become partners. To learn more, click here. Restaurants, schools, and large institutions should contact their distributors to learn how they can order UrthPact’s new home compostable straws.
Sep 4, 2020
There’s more to compost than meets the eye. Many people think of compost as just dumping your veggie peels, yard waste and/or fruit rinds into a bin in your backyard, and then over time having it turn into a useful fertilizer for your garden. But did you know that you can compost a wide variety of materials outside of just food waste, and on a much larger scale? Commercial compost facilities allow us to compost a wide range of food wastes, as well as other materials like yard clippings, grease waste, and compostable bioplastic waste. Combining this with increasing awareness and education for composting at home provides an incredible opportunity for society to reduce the amount of waste in landfills, as well as create a much healthier waste product.
The basic differences between industrial compost and home compost are the volumes at which they can be performed, the conditions under which they occur, and the location where they occur. As per their names, home composting can be done in your own backyard (or anywhere in nature for that matter), while industrial composting occurs in specialized facilities where temperature and other factors can be controlled and adjusted. Home compost is meant for smaller volumes of waste (from a single household for instance), while industrial compost is for entire communities or municipalities, similar to your local landfill or dump. Industrial composting helps to divert food waste and other compostables from landfills, not only reducing the volume of waste in landfills, but helping to lower greenhouse gas emissions as well.
There are three popular methods of industrial composting: aerated windrow, aerated static, and covered in-vessel. Aerated windrows are long, tall piles of compost that are manually turned in order to allow all of the materials to spend time in the center of the pile where temperatures are highest and composting occurs quicker. Aerated static piles are similar to windrows in their set-up, however they are aerated passively by adding layers of wood chips or shredded newspaper, or an airflow pipe system. Finally, covered in-vessel composting requires the most equipment. The waste is placed into a large drum, trench, or other vessel where temperature, air flow and moisture can all be controlled. This provides a much faster compost process, however the pile must sit for a time period after the process is complete so the microbial community can balance and the pile can cool. Each method has pros and cons, but any of the three allow a community to divert immense volumes of waste from landfills, saving space and the planet.
At UrthPact, we truly believe in the power of compostables to save the planet. All of our product lines offer either commercially or home compostable versions. And we continue to move our products towards being 100% home compostable. It’s predicted that the amount of plastic in the oceans will TRIPLE by 2040 without extreme action. By moving certain industries to sustainable and compostable products, we have the opportunity to make a difference and truly save the world.
Sep 2, 2020
As 2020 continues on, plastic pollution continues to be a major problem for our planet. And the more that single-use products become a necessity for sanitation and safety, the more important it becomes for us to find an end-of-life solution that benefits our planet rather than harms it. Industrial composting may just be that answer. Industrially compostable bioplastics provide the functionality we need from single-use plastics, but are able to be transported to commercial facilities and turned into usable composts and fertilizers in under 180 days. These facilities are able to process large volumes of municipal compostable waste, allowing communities to not only invest in bioplastics, but to reduce the amount of food waste that is transported to landfills.
Two smaller scale methods of composting are on-site composting and vermicomposting. On-site composting is ideal for small organizations looking to use composting to reduce food waste. These types of compost piles are often made up mainly of food waste and yard trimmings. It requires very little time and equipment, however there is a right and wrong way to do it. Food scraps must be properly sorted and handled, and the compost process can take up to 2 years without manual turning of the pile. Vermicomposting involves adding red worms to a compost bin in order to break down the material into high quality compost called castlings. The worms help to speed up the compost process to about 3-4 months without turning. However, there is the added factor of caring for the worms, and ensuring they have the proper living environment and food sources.
On a municipal scale, there are 3 types of industrial composting: aerated windrow, aerated static, and in-vessel. Each has the ability to process large volumes of compostable waste. In aerated windrow compost, the waste is arranged into rows of long piles (4-8 feet high and 14-16 feet long) called “windrows,” which are turned regularly to provide all of the compostables time in the warm center of the pile where increased heat further encourages breakdown. This method is suitable for a wide range of wastes, including yard trimmings, grease, liquids, and animal byproducts. It can stand up to a variety of climates, and the pile can be adjusted or covered to accommodate weather patterns. The most important factor to consider with aerated windrow composting is that there needs to be a system in place to control odor, due to the open-air nature of the system.
Aerated static composting results in usable compost fairly quickly, between 3-6 months. This method works best with a homogeneous mix of organic waste (like yard trimmings and food waste) but isn’t suitable for grease or animal byproducts. In this method, waste is placed into a large pile that is split up with layers of “bulking agents,” like wood chips or shredded newspaper that allow air to pass through and aerate the pile. Air blowers and other ventilation systems can also be used to aerate the pile. Due to the passive nature of the aeration, these types of piles require constant and vigilant temperature monitoring to ensure ideal compost conditions.
Finally, covered in-vessel composting takes up less space than windrows and can accommodate virtually any type of organic waste. The waste is fed into a covered drum, silo, trench, or similar set-up, which allows for complete control over temperature, air flow, and other variables. The material is mechanically turned for aeration, and compost is created in just a few weeks. Due to this high speed of formation however, the compost then needs time to allow the microbial activity to balance and the pile to cool before it is usable. While this method provides the most control over the compost and a fast turnaround, it is the most expensive of the 3 methods due to the technology requirement.
Not only does composting provide a better end-of-life option for bioplastics and other materials, it can divert a huge volume of waste away from landfills, where that waste can be converted into something new and usable for agricultural and other purposes. Up to 50% of the waste that is currently being landfilled could be composted instead. When food waste breaks down in landfills, it does so anaerobically, meaning that it does so without oxygen present. This process releases methane gas, an extremely harmful greenhouse gas. The compost process brings oxygen into the equation, allowing carbon to be sequestered away in the final compost material rather than released into the atmosphere.
Besides providing usable fertilizers and compost, industrial and commercial compost facilities provide twice the number of jobs currently created by the recycling industry, and triple the jobs created by landfilling. There are also a huge range of environmental benefits provided by composting that cannot be matched by either recycling or landfilling. Composting on the municipal level can help communities to reduce their waste volumes and protect the planet. Commercially compostable products and packaging are the first step towards creating a fully circular economy for single-use products, and saving our planet from the plastic noose that is continually tightening around it.
For more information on bioplastics and the compostable future, CLICK HERE.
