Compostables

The fact that plastic pollution has been shouldered off onto the consumer is a global scam that must have the lizard people absolutely cackling with glee. It's common knowledge by now that more than half of all plastic waste is generated by a handful of megacorporations. Why do we spend our personal energy stressing about our own individual footprint when these massive petrochemical companies can 100% legally lobby to shirk the global consequences of their reckless plastic production? The responsibility for plastic waste must lie with the producer, instead of kicking the can down the line until we Seattlites are stressing about which bin to throw which part of our takeout containers into.

And then I go and start a company. As a producer, I indignantly and perhaps self-righteously accept my obligation to use plastic responsibly. I think that spending more time and effort (and unfortunately money) to do things in a sustainable way is a responsibility that *every* company must realize they have. Sure, I'm a teeny tiny producer, but I stick to my principles, damn it. I'm sending out 100-something boxes of microgreens this week and 30 of them are going to be packaged in, ugh, regular PET plastic. And that's my fault, and my guts are just churning in knots.

For years I've been packaging microgreens in compostable Ingeo biopolymer plastic clamshells. They look and feel just like a standard plastic container, the greens look great in them, and they seal tight to keep everything fresh. I'm a big fan of the materials science: Ingeo is made from corn byproduct and it entirely biodegrades in a month in a commercial composting facility like our own lovely Cedar Grove. It's great for storing something cold, and then beginning to cease to exist the moment it's exposed to the slightest amount of heat. I've gone to great lengths to arrange bulk shipments of containers on cloudy days to make sure the material holds up. I've eaten the cost of boxes that warp in warm weather and fail to seal. I'm used to paying more than triple the cost of regular PET clamshells. But to make it so my vegetables are stored effectively in a container that won't be floating in the ocean long after I'm dead, I think it's worth the extra investment.

But here we are in the sputtering throes of a global crisis, and I go to restock my containers last week, and lo and behold, there is a global materials shortage of Ingeo biopolymer. I discovered that my favorite localish manufacturer down in Portland sank with the pandemic. Most prices I'm seeing from other vendors are more than double what I was used to paying before the pandemic, plus shipping from further away. I emailed my distributor who said that there are 6+ week backups on orders... while I'm lookin at the sunflower seeds already sprouting in the trays.

Record scratch. Freeze frame. What I need to do is test out some alternatives that are still compostable. When I first started growing microgreens years ago I ran trials on all sorts of compostable containers, and Ingeo really shone. While a lot of the microgreens you can find in the grocery store get moldy in the container in a few days, my sunnies stay fresh for a week and a half in a container with a nice seal. Fiber materials like bagasse that don't fully close really compromise the product, and even in the crisper get dessicated and dried out by a consumer refrigerator. The just-like-plastic plastic of Ingeo was really the best for keeping the greens fresh and attractive for the market booth. But times change, the economy changes, and I need to find a more sustainable option - economically this time.

Oink oink goes the capitalist pig, I caved and bought one sleeve of the cheap plastic clamshells. There simply wasn't enough time to test out a bunch of new containers, and I had to take the option that wouldn't result in this August heat rendering my delicate little greens inedible before they even get to you in the CSA boxes. If I had known about the material shortage, I would have stocked up on boxes so much earlier than this.

So if you get one of the PET containers with the link to this blog on the label, and you've made it this far into my crazy rant, from the bottom of my big dumb hippie heart, I am truly sorry. I am sorry for all this plastic wrapped up in your dinner. It's not your responsibility, it's mine - and I will do better to find a container that keeps the sunnies fresh, but isn't single-use plastic that will outlive both of us.

<3,

-Jesse