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Regardless of whether you run a business or your just work as part of one, there are a number of things for you to be concerned about, and the way that your business is perceived by environmentally friendly enthusiasts and parties is becoming an increasingly important aspect of your business image. This is particularly true of smaller, more locally orientated businesses, as the local community and most common target audiences are becoming more and more interested in environmentally friendly practices and green technologies.

One of the prime targets of this are the cafés and eateries, where the need to provide an environmentally friendly solution for takeaway packaging is pushed more and more onto the establishments each year. Fortunately this is become an increasingly easy thing for such businesses to accomplish, thanks to the number of environmentally friendly options available for takeaway containers. One of the most popular currently, and in my personal opinion one of the most effective, is the ecotainer cup. These are a completely biodegradable solution, and unlike some ‘biodegradable’ options which are no more effective or beneficial to the environment than any regular material, these are completely compostable to the same excellent and quick standards as your food waste.

Of course, these days there are a number of advances with regards to environmentally friendly packaging solutions, even outside of takeaway cups, and there are a number of businesses that are taking advantage of our interest in such matters in order to advance their business footing with exciting and interesting new concepts and designs for green packaging options.

· Bioplastics

Some bioplastics aren’t actually as biodegradable as they would claim; in fact in many cases no more so than regular plastics, the real eco-friendly factor of them comes from their manufacturing process, as they are produced using natural plant and food proteins, which means that they can almost be produced using nothing but natural food waste – a new and effective option for recycling. However – because people believe that bioplastics are biodegradable or even compostable they are often given a much more positive image than they perhaps deserve.

· Compostable

There are a variety of compostable options, which is of course the better option for biodegradable options. Compostable products are those that we would be able to fully biodegrade into compost waste in our own homes or gardens much like we would with any other organic matter. Most compostable packaging options are paper based.

· Edible

This is a new one, but arguably the most exciting option. It doesn’t just disappear in an environmentally friendly way, but offers a rather delectable option too. There aren’t too many edible options as of yet, and surprisingly it isn’t that much of a new thing. There was an edible option using corn starch bioplastics a few years ago, the problem was that it tasted terrible. A new competitor in the world of edible containers however is Loliware; the first to offer edible cups that actually taste nice – and they offer these in a selection of flavours too!