Compostable Hot Cups - 4 Tips to Buying Truly Green Biodegradable Coffee Cups

4 Things to Look for in Compostable Hot Cups: "Compostable" Labeling, Bio-Plastic Lining, Chlorine Free, and FSC Certified

00:02:07 - Uploaded by Viv Biz Club | Green Food Packaging on August 5, 2010

What's up everybody? We're coming at your here live from our Viv offices and today we are giving y'all 4 quick tips to purchasing compostable hot cups.

Here it is. 4 tips - under 3 minutes.

Tip #1 - You're looking for hot cups that are BPI certified and meet ASTM standards D6400 and D6868. What you're looking for though is that there is proper labeling of those compostability standards. That means you're looking for 1) a green stripe on your cups and 2) the word compostable. That's how you know that the cups go in a compost container and that's how the folks at composting and recycling facilities know that this cup is compostable.

Tip #2 - You're looking for a bio-plastic lining inside the cup. Take a deep look in there. I know you can't tell if it's a bio-plastic, but trust me it is. Bio-plastic lining is important because 90+% of composting facilities don't accept hot cups that don't have a bio-plastic lining. There are a lot of hot cups out there with a PE lining - that's polyethylene. These hot cups are not accepted at composting facilities. Don't buy them.

Tip #3 - You're looking for hot cups that are PCF or ECF - what does that mean? Well, you'll often see two types of hot cups - you'll see the white and you'll see the brown. Brown are processed chlorine free (PCF) or elemental chlorine free (ECF). If you don't need to buy white hot cups, we highly recommend going brown because chlorine is a toxin that can leach into your ground water and if you don't need it, don't get it.

Tip #4 - You are looking for hot cups that are FSC certified. What does that stand for? That's Forest Stewardship Council certified. That means that the paper in these cups is sourced from sustainable well managed forests, and that's where you should be getting your paper from if you can.

So those are your 4 tips in under 3 minutes - and that's all for hot cups!

Tags: compostable hot cups, compostable cups, biodegradable cups, biodegradable coffee cups, buy guides, tips, biodegradable food packaging, fsc certified, pcf, ecf, astm d6400

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