world centric ecotainer

I've been making an effort to brew my coffee at home in the morning as a way to not only avoid the expense of picking up coffee on the go but also to avoid producing the surplus waste of paper cup and plastic lid. My track record is getting better all the time, but one morning last week I gave the husband a ride to his 8:00 class and was unable to fortify myself with a cup of homebrew. So I stopped off at a local cafe to pick up some coffee on the way to work.

Our neighborhood is home to many small, independent restaurants and coffee shops and one of my favorites is the Birchwood Cafe. They are a cafeteria-style restaurant featuring baked goods, multiple vegetarian options, and locally roasted and bike-delivered Peace Coffee. So I already felt good about my purchasing choice having not gone to Starbucks or another international chain. But then, my morning coffee got even better. When I inspected my to-go cup, I saw the words "World Centric" stamped onto the lid, and "ecotainer" printed on the side of the cup. Both cup and lid were compostable, so I didn't have to throw either into the trash can at work. Happy day!

Instead, I brought them home and put them in my outdoor compost bin. When we had our house-warming party a year and a half ago, I set up a special trash system where people had only two options: recycle or compost. We had bought compostable paper plates and provided people with real silverware rather than plastic. Then there were either bottles or cans for beverages. Our low-waste house party was a success, and I've been watching those paper plates break down in the bin over the past year. Now they're pretty much disintegrated and mixed in to the pile of humus-soil-foodwaste accumulating in our back yard.

I am a huge supporter of compostable take-out supplies, so I just wanted to give a shout-out to the Birchwood for making the move to compostable coffee cups. And if you're interested in world centric ecotainers yourself, check out their manufacturers' websites here and here. For me, that little bit of good news for the environment totally made my day!