• Life Cycle Inventory Franklin and Associates, Ltd.

• Composts Using a Variety of Methods USDA

• Less Space in Landfill University of Arizona

• Composts Commercially State University of New York

• Biodegrades in a Marine Environment University of California, Los Angeles

• Outdoor Degradation University of Maryland

• Composts in Your Backyard CalRecovery, Inc.

Life Cycle Inventory

Franklin and Associates, Ltd.
Prairie Village, KS

To determine the environmental impact of food service disposable packaging, a life cycle inventory (LCI) was commissioned by EarthShell®. LCI is the first step in a multi-staged process called life cycle analysis (LCA), which is a method used to estimate the environmental performance of a product or process over its entire life cycle, including raw material extraction from the earth, production, use and end-of-life disposal. The LCI is used to evaluate the environmental profile of EarthShell from raw materials, through manufacturing, use and disposal. It serves as a tool to make further improvements in the environmental profile and to gauge the effect of potential product improvements.

Compared to traditional rigid disposables, the LCI showed several environmental advantages for EarthShell:

• Consumes less energy to produce throughout entire life cycle
• Uses less fossil fuel to produce
• Produces lower greenhouse gas emissions
• Produces lower amount of a wide variety of air and water emissions
• Creates significantly less waste by volume in landfill burial throughout entire life cycle

Field Scale Composting of Cafeteria Residuals Containing EarthShell® Biodegradable Plates and Bowls

Patricia D. Millner, Ph.D.
USDA Agricultural Research Service
Henry A. Wallace Agricultural Research Center
Beltsville, MD

Using three composting methods (bin, in-vessel and windrow), EarthShell plates and bowls were successfully composted during a pilot project with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The test was conducted to illustrate that EarthShell will successfully return to earth’s natural cycles through composting. During the normal compost cycle, EarthShell was closely observed in each of the composting methods used. The test concluded that all three methods were successful for the composting of EarthShell products, which were combined with napkins and food scraps.

 

Summary of a Series of Studies Conducted by the Garbage Project

William Rathje, Wilson Hughes and Timothy Jones
Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

The landfill burial project considers decomposition as well as moisture content, mass and volume. EarthShell® products were tested along with fluted paper and polystyrene containers in this study. After 12 months of burial, it was found that EarthShell containers occupied significantly less landfill space than either the paper or the polystyrene containers.

 

An Assessment of the Compostability of EarthShell® Disposable Packaging

Vincent T. Breslin and R.L. Swanson
Waste Reduction & Management Institute
State University of New York, Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY

The Waste Reduction & Management Institute (WRMI) at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook conducted a composting study at the East Hampton, NY Recycling and Composting Facility with the objective of determining the compostability of EarthShell products. An item is deemed compostable if it deteriorates to the point where it could not be visually identified in compost, and if it does not negatively affect the quality of the final compost product. The study revealed that the EarthShell rapidly decomposed at the East Hampton facility and that the presence of the container had no negative effects on the compost. Specifically, the compost was determined to be Class 1 compost. Class 1 compost is that with unrestricted use, including use for food crops, according to the U.S. EPA guidelines.

 

Environmental Science and Engineering Program

Dr. Mel Suffet and Dr. Michael Stenstrom
School of Public Health
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

The objective of this study was to determine the behavior(s) of EarthShell® in water – evaluating the product’s solubility, biodegradability, estimated toxicity and identifying any by-products. This study indicates that the EarthShell material should pose no significant environmental impact if released to the aquatic environment. The material is very soluble and highly biodegradable. Dissolution and biodegradation of the EarthShell material do not provide any specific hazardous organic chemicals and metals. Dissolution and biodegradation by-products were not toxic to a marine animal used in the laboratory toxicity test.

 

Decomposition Rates of Several Disposable Food Service Containers

John C. Bouwkamp, Ph.D.
Department of Natural Resource Sciences and Landscape Architecture
University of Maryland
College Park, MD

An experiment was conducted at two sites in central Maryland to compare the rate of decomposition of several types of hinged-lid food service containers. The sites were chosen to be representative of situations under which such containers may be inappropriately discarded. Specifically, a grassy site to represent roadside environments and an unused parking lot were chosen. The container types included polystyrene, fluted paperboard and EarthShell products. The study showed that the EarthShell® degraded within 60 to 90 days in a roadside environment, given normal rainfall patterns. Paperboard containers would be expected to require three to five times longer than EarthShell, and polystyrene showed no evidence of degrading.

 

Backyard Compositing Demonstration

CalRecovery, Inc.
Concord, CA

CalRecovery conducted numerous biodegradability and compostability tests (including laboratory scale and backyard scale) of the EarthShell® materials. They have examined the individual components as well as the complete products. When taken collectively, these many studies indicate that EarthShell is biodegradable in a composing environment.