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| 24 Jul 2008 03:48:17 pm |
 Starbucks New Polypropylene Cup.... Part Two |
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Came across the following on an official Starbucks blog - it is curious to me that they avoid talking about the lid...
Starbucks New VIVANNO™ Cold Cups Reducing Our Environmental Footprint – One Cup at a Time
July 22, 2008 posted by Jim Hanna
Take a closer look at Starbucks newest VIVANNO™ cold cups and you’ll notice something a little different. Traditionally, our cold cups have been made from the industry-standard Polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) plastic. You can identify it by the #1 symbol on the bottom of the cup. Although it’s the same PET that is used for most beverage bottles, the manufacturing process for cups makes them incompatible with bottles in most recycling systems. Unfortunately, this means most recyclers won’t accept any PET cups for recycling.
We’re concerned about the climate impact of our cups and other packaging. One cup doesn’t make much of a difference, but we sell over one billion cold cups every year, so any improvement we can make in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from producing our cups has a pretty big impact.
That’s why we asked an external group of scientists to look at the entire environmental impact lifecycle of our cups, from extraction of the raw materials, to converting the plastic resins into cups, to their transportation, to their use and finally their disposal. What we discovered is that polypropylene (PP) cups actually use 15% less plastic than PET cups and emit 45% less greenhouse gasses during their production. This lifecycle assessment (or LCA) approach is how we plan to start measuring the true environmental impact of every major decision around packaging. It’s not enough to just focus on recycling anymore. To be truly responsible, we need to understand all of the impacts of our decisions around cups or coffee or the way we build our stores. Recycling is just one link in an entire chain of environmental impacts.
But, speaking of recycling, PP cups are also a great improvement over PET because PP (identify it by the #5 symbol) can be mixed (or co-mingled) together without impacting its ability to be recycled. So, if your recycler accepts yogurt or margarine containers (also PP) for recycling, they should also take Starbucks new VIVANNO™ cups. Just be sure to check with your local recycler first. This may be new to them too, so they may not be currently accepting PP cups.
Starbucks is excited to introduce our newest beverage in our newest cup. As the first company to use post-consumer recycled paper fiber in hot cups, we’re always looking for ways to reduce the environmental impact of our operations. So, enjoy your VIVANNO™ and let us know what you think of the drink and the new cups!
If interested, you can visit their blog directly here. |
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Category : Products
| By : Mike |  Comments [150] |  Trackbacks [0] |
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| 23 Jul 2008 09:47:17 am |
| Pactiv Announces Earnings for Second Quarter |
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Pactiv, a significant manufacturer of disposables (plastics, foil and foam) announced their earnings, today.
Included in the press release that I saw was the following quote from their CEO; "Our second price increase this year in the Foodservice/Food Packaging segment was effective in June, and we announced an additional price increase in that segment, as well as in our Consumer segment, that will be effective later in the third quarter to mitigate the expected impact of significantly higher resin costs.”
This is not good news as it is likely the first wave of yet another round of price increases from disposables manufacturers that we'll be seeing later this summer.
Separately, I noted that they had purchased Prairie Packaging a year ago which - frankly - was news to me. Prairie is a significant manufacturer of cold (plastic) cups and the Envellop foam / paper Hot Cups (which are starting to show up at major QSR's as part of their upgraded coffee programs). |
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Category : Companies
| By : Mike | Comments [116] | Trackbacks [0] |
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| 22 Jul 2008 04:08:06 pm |
| PreDisposed e-Newsletter launches Thursday |
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This Thursday we'll send out the first edition of our bi-weekly e-newsletter PreDisposed. Please sign up for our mail list by visiting http://www.predisposednews.com/ and registering.
This weeks edition will be a little light on content as it is primarily meant as a test, but it will grow with the 7/31 issue and everey two weeks (Thursdays) after that.
Thanks
MDA |
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Category : Companies
| By : Mike | Comments [118] | Trackbacks [1] |
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| 18 Jul 2008 11:26:05 am |
| Insulair Adds a Reclosable Lid |
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Insulair (which for almost 2 years now has been a part of the Georgia Pacific / Dixie Foodservice family) has recently added a re-closable offering to their line of dome lids.
Currently only available in white and in the 12.16 and 20.24 sizes (nothing for an 8 oz at the moment), this lid is a knock-off of the succesfull re-closable offering for their lower end Perfect Touch cup.
These lids are a bit pricey (in our view) at about a 20% premium over a standard dome lid, but when you see how they are built you can understand the need for the upcharge. Probably best suited for venues with a high volume of "commuters" who want to reduce the risk of a spill.....
Have a great weekend!
MDA |
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Category : Products
| By : Mike | Comments [134] | Trackbacks [0] |
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| 17 Jul 2008 09:16:58 am |
| Disposables Pricing Index (DPI) - First Edition |
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As part of our (soon to be launched) bi-weekly PreDisposed e-Newsletter, we plan to always include an updated graphic showing our proprietary Disposables Pricing Index (DPI), which is the industry's first attempt to provide independent foodservice owners & operators with a projection on where the cost of their disposables is heading....
Through a proprietary formula that takes into account raw material input costs, transportation costs, announced price changes from select major disposables manufacturers and other data, we provide a projection on the short term stability (or lack thereof) on disposable foodservice packaging prices. Today's projection is shown below....
(c) copyright Strategic Alternatives, LLC 2008
Analysis: Despite this weeks softening in oil prices (see yesterday's post), there is still too much momentum built up in increasing transportation costs and announced manufacturer price increases to see any pricing relief yet. Our take is that (as compared to two weeks ago) pricing trends have actually gotten a bit worse.
As with anything new and any index, we anticiapte learning new things and modifying our formula as we move forward. We are open to your ideas and input.
Our PreDisposed e-Newsletter, (to be published every other Thursday) will always be your first place to see the most current DPI, however until then, we'll post it on this Blog every other Thursday and after the launch of the newsletter on Friday's.
MDA |
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Category : Pricing
| By : Mike | Comments [126] | Trackbacks [0] |
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