Our materials

PLA or Corn Plastic

EcoProducts offers cups, lids, cutlery, and containers made from a biopolymer called PLA (polylactic acid) which is derived from starchy plants like corn, grown right here in the U.S.

PLA performs much like traditional petroleum-based plastics, but with the crucial benefit of being 100% compostable in commercial compost facilities. We like PLA because it is versatile and it breaks down in a commercial facility within 180 days.

We use it in place of petroleum-derived plastic lining in our GreenStripe™ and WorldArt™ hot cups. You can also find many of our food containers made from PLA. Our compostable cutlery is made from crystallized PLA. This formulation of PLA is rigid and durable – perfect for cutlery and of course, is commercially compostable.

Best of all, our PLA products give you an opportunity to divert waste from landfills – and create valuable compost that we can all use. To find a composter near you, check out www.findacomposter.com

How do you make PLA

Technically, "corn plastic" is a biopolymer made from polylactide (PLA) that can be derived from starchy plants like corn, potatoes, tapioca, sugarcane, and soy protein.

In the U.S., PLA is typically made from corn kernels that are milled and processed to extract the simple sugar dextrose. At its simplest level, dextrose is a carbohydrate made of the molecules carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen – and it is a byproduct of photosynthesis.

Large fermenters process dextrose and make lactic acid. Fermentation is an amazing metabolic process that has been well-known for thousands of years in the making of beers, wines, cheeses and teas. Fermentation is used here in an industrial capacity to break down dextrose into lactic acid which can then be converted into long polymer chains.

These polymer chains are the building blocks for PLA products. A wide variety of items can be made from PLA – from fabrics to our disposable cups. These products perform like plastics, but are made from annually renewable resources like corn plants.

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NatureWorks

Cedar Grove Compost

Sugarcane

Eco-Products offers a 100% compostable alternative to conventional tree-based paper products. Known as bagasse, these paper items are made from sugarcane fiber after the sugar "juice" has been extracted. Typically, sugarcane fiber is a discarded by-product from cane sugar manufacturing. Eco-Products reclaims this fiber and uses it to create products from a material that would otherwise be thrown away or burned.

Bagasse is completely compostable in commercial facilities, and doesn’t rely on any trees for production. It can take up to three tons of trees to make one ton of paper, and each tree can 10, 20 or even 30 years to mature. However, one ton of crushed sugarcane produces between 250 and 300 kg of bagasse, and sugarcane can be harvested every 18 months because it grows so fast. You can still use disposable "paper" products, but feel good that you are choosing a product that is made from rapidly renewable materials.

Our sugarcane products are all BPI certified 100% compostable in commercial compost facilities and will completely compost within 180 days. To find a composter near you, check out www.findacomposter.com

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Sugarcane is a renewable, fast growing resource that is grown and harvested every year and a half for a number of purposes, like cane juice. Once the juice is extracted, the sugarcane stalk is either incinerated or discarded. Because we use it before it gets discarded, the stalk is now a "reclaimed resource". From there, we are able to break it down into a pulp that can be used to make products that would otherwise be made from tree fiber. Because of this, Eco-Products is excited to offer a 100% compostable alternative to conventional tree-based paper products.

Post Consumer Fiber

Our Evolution World™ hot cups are made with 24% post consumer recycled fiber (PCF). That means that 24% of the paper used to make these cups has already had another life as something else like office paper or stationary, for example. This paper was sent through the recycling stream, and was repurposed into FDA approved foodservice grade paperboard for us to use in our cups.

Why only 24%? Well, that is currently the highest percentage of post consumer fiber in foodservice grade paperboard we can use in our products. We are working with our suppliers to increase the amount of recycled content, but for now, we are bringing you products with as much PCF as possible. Offering products with post consumer recycled fiber has the added benefit of helping stimulate demand for recycled paper, thus helping support the recycling markets here in the United States.

Learn more about post consumer waste

Post consumer waste is material that has been discarded after someone uses it. It has served its intended use and it is being reused in a different product instead of being thrown away.

Pre consumer waste is material that was discarded before it was ready for consumer use. Pre consumer waste is basically the reintroduction of manufacturing scrap (such as trimmings from paper production, defective aluminum cans, etc.) back into the manufacturing process. If a product is simply labeled "recycled content," the material might have come from excess or damaged items generated during normal manufacturing processes – and not collected through a local recycling program.

Recycled PET Plastic

Our recycled PET (rPET) cups are made from 50% recycled PET bottles. PET is a plastic that can be recycled many, many times into a wide variety of products and it is one of the most common plastics used to make disposable beverage bottles. By including the highest amount of recycled content that we can, our cups offer some great beginning-of-life environmental benefits because there are fewer virgin raw materials in each cup. We are excited to give a second (or third) life to PET.

We also like to support the growing market for this recycled material, and best of all, each and every rPET cup contains PET that has already had a previous life (or two) as a soda bottle. However, some places are simply not able to accept and recycle rPET at this time. We are hoping that this changes soon and encourage you to contact your recycling facility to see what is accepted in your area.

Plant Starch

Plant Starch material is made from a mix of renewable plant starches including corn, potatoes, and other vegetables and fillers. It has a heat tolerance of 200° F, which is why we use it to make our high heat tolerance cutlery.

We recently learned that our plant starch cutlery contains about 30% polypropylene fillers and because of this, it is not fully compostable in commercial facilities. If you don't require a certified compostable solution, our Plantware™ cutlery is heat tolerant, durable and contains nearly 70% renewable materials. If you need a fully compostable solution, check out our crystallized PLA cutlery that is BPI certified compostable.