San Francisco, Day 5 of 14: Is it plastic or is it compost?

I have to admit. Sometimes it's hard to tell if something is plastic or compostable material. I was in Trader Joe's last night looking for a few things. Normally I don't like going there because they wrap all their vegetables with some sort of material. Plus, you can't buy vegetables individually; you have to buy them in fixed quantities. However, they're one of the only vendors in San Francisco that sell Spanish olive oil; so, I have to go there occasionally. (Spanish olive oil is SOOOO good!)

Anyway, we needed some tomatoes and I looked with dread at the container for the tomatoes. Is it recyclable??? I sure hope so! I flipped the container over and searched desperately for the recycling symbol. It was nowhere to be found! Sigh. Then my wife pointed out that the package said "Compostable." Hoooray! I was so busy looking for the recycling symbol that I actually overlooked the big type saying "Nature Works Compostable."

So, I looked "Nature Works" up. Here's what I found.

http://www.natureworksllc.com/

Derived from 100% annually renewable resources such as corn, our product, NatureWorks® polymer, is the world’s first polymer showing a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

I've seen corn products like this before, but never one for holding tomatoes. Pretty cool! See images below.

And here's a list of what I landfilled/recycled/composted yesterday.

Landfill

• Sticker label for baguette
• Clear "window" on an envelope
• Dental Floss

Recycling

• Muni train ticket
• Junk mail
• Wine bottle
• Voting guide

Compost

• Banana Peel
• Paper container for my lunch taco (I eat a lot of these things)
• Used napkin
• Used tea bag
• Cheese rind
• Tomatoes

Until tomorrow.

Cheers,

Rob