By Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent
Corn-based coffee cups help save environment
|
|
HUDSON -- The Commuter's Cup coffee shop is now selling coffee in an environmentally-friendly cup that's made from corn and is fully biodegradable.
That's a yearly total of hundreds of thousands of cups that constitute an annually renewable resource and will dissolve and disappear from landfills in just 50 days, officials estimate.
Traditional plastic cups survive for decades, point out Joyce and Charles Potter, who own the shop that's perched in the Plaza 94 parking lot, at the south end nearest an Interstate 94 frontage road named Coulee Road.
The shop is really just a large kiosk, with room for two employees, serving customers drive-through style in car lanes on either side. On the west side are plenty of recycling containers, which get a lot of use because the business sells specialty coffees in the morning and afternoon rush hours to hundreds of commuters on their way to jobs in the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
The Potters have not posted any special advertising about the special cups, but they and their employees spread the word, Joyce Potter said.
She referred to this as "greenware," and some customers do comment on the special cups. "Anytime you don't use Styrofoam it's a definite plus," Potter said. "Some of them ask what kind of cups we use. Even as far as paper cups, they can be pretty particular."
The Potters bought the business in December 2006, from Don and Deborah Maysack, who operated St. Croix Hospitality Inc. The Maysacks introduced the environmentally-friendly cups to the Hudson market, both at the kiosk and at another coffee shop they owned in the Hudson downtown.
The business still gets a lot of customers from the previous owners, but the Potters have expanded with their own customer base, which is now "considerable," Potter said. Members of St. Patrick Parish make up some of that customer base, as the shop isn't much more than a mile away from the church.
There are a core group of customers who really do care about the cups and what they do in landfills, although the time of day is also a factor in their concern, Potter said. "When they are going to work in the morning, they are not really thinking about what kind of cup they are drinking from," she said, adding that in the ride back to Hudson in the afternoon, they are less rushed and apt to be more focused on such things.
The cups are more expensive, but the Potters see this is an investment in the environment, and the right thing to do. In the highly competitive market in the Hudson area, with many different coffee options, both sets of owners said this is just one more reason for environmentally-aware customers to choose their shop over the competition.
The cup's manufacturer, Fabri-Kal, says the cups are made from poly lactic acid, which is a resin derived from corn materials. Benefits are reduced fossil fuel use, annually renewable and sustainable resource use, reduction in landfill contamination and aid to a sustainable world economy. The products have met stringent scientific specifications and have been certified 100 percent compost ready by the Biodegradable Plastics Institute.
Both sets of shop owners also have sold only Fair Trade coffee, and, Potter said their new supplier is closer, so the reduced shipping miles also benefit the environment.
Fair Trade coffee is distributed through networks that guarantee the coffee farmers receive a fair price for their crop.
The owners say that all these practices can set an example for large, chain-store coffee shops.
Editor's note: St. Patrick Parish also serves Fair Trade coffee at all its social gatherings and has it available for purchase by parishioners after all Masses on the first weekend of each month. Church organizers say there has been a steady increase in sales each month.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2007