You can buy them online at our online store or with your local distributor.

Please contact our experts at  pp-inquiries@novolex.com.

You can find product specific information on our product information pages but in general:

Product material

Product material	Freezer	Microwave	Oven
Paper	Yes (short term storage only)	No	No
PLA	No	No	No
Sugarcane	Yes (short term storage only)	Yes	No
RPET	Yes (short term storage only)	No	No

Paper and Sugarcane products can go in the freezer, although they are not airtight, so freshness and freezer burn can become issues if left there too long. PLA and RPET can become brittle when frozen, so we don't recommend putting these products in the freezer.

While our hot cups, soup cups and some containers are designed for hot foods, they are not designed for the extreme heat of the microwave. Microwaves will cause them to warp, leak or even catch on fire. Unless a disposable product says "microwave safe" on it, it's a good idea to use a glass container to reheat your food instead.

Lined sugarcane products will hold liquids well and is grease and cut resistant. Unlined sugarcane works great too, but like paper, it may be more likely to lose strength when used with very hot foods or liquids

No, our products are not edible. They are comply with (EC) No 1935/2004, (EU) No 10/2011 and are FDA approved for food contact, but are not considered edible/digestible. Even though many of our products are derived from plants, they are plastic and should not be eaten.

Paper hot cups and soup cups are designed to hold hot drinks and food, but not to withstand the extreme heat of a microwave. At best, the glue at the seam can loosen and the cup will start to leak. At worst, the cups can even catch on fire! This is true for all paper cups, not just ours. We recommend microwaving in glass or ceramic containers labeled as microwave safe.

Yes. Eco-Products warrants the products supplied to be free from manufacturing defects. The Eco-Products warranty does not cover defects attributable to or resulting from normal use, inappropriate storage, shipping or handling. Eco-Products retains the right to request product samples, whether damaged or otherwise, to be returned to Eco-Products at a determined destination for inspection prior to replacement or credit for said goods.

If a replacement is made, Eco-Products shall have a reasonable time to deliver such replacement goods. If, after inspection, Eco-Products determines that the products are defective, we will offer replacement product or credit.

Our compostable products break down in a commercial compost facility in 12 weeks. Many of our products actually break down quicker, depending on the material type.

EN 13432 is the European standard specifically designed to determine if a product is compostable in a commercial facility, so look for the seedling or OK Compost logo on our products and you can be confident that your product will break down quickly in a commercial facility

We recommend disposing of products in a commercial compost facility where they can be broken down, turned into compost and then returned to the soil. Home composting typically does not create the consistent composting conditions needed for our products, but commercial facilities can manage just fine.

No, our products are not certified as marine degradable and we strongly encourage everyone to keep all plastics out of oceans and waterways.

For disposal, naturally we recommend composting if it's available, but if not, please dispose of all foodservice items responsibly. Even if these items head to the landfill, this is preferred to leaving items to escape as litter into the environment. There is still an important environmental benefit to choosing Eco-Products items over traditional foam or plastic items that contain no recycled content or renewable materials.

The terms “biodegradable” and “compostable” are not equivalent or interchangeable. “Biodegradable” simply means something will be broken down by microbes over time, which is true for most materials on the planet. An aluminium can is “biodegradable”… if you wait 200 years. Since this term applies to almost everything, it is a pretty meaningless claim and one that has been significantly abused through greenwashing. In contrast, “compostable” means something will break down in a reasonable amount of time, leave behind no toxic residue, and safely become an additive to soil.

Not necessarily, PLA foodservices items will break down at about the same rate regardless of size (extremely large or dense items may take even more time). The composting process primarily depends on heat, moisture, and time, and even small pieces of PLA require the same conditions to start composting. Paper items may break down faster in smaller pieces, but commercial composters know their systems well and often will chop material into the ideal size for their needs.

No, they don't. Our sugarcane and PLA products need the right conditions to compost. They need heat, moisture and microorganisms to fully break down. Soil, water and retail shelves do not provide an optimum environment for composting.

We have 2 lines of products; our GreenStripe® items that are made with renewable resources and our BlueStripe™ items that are made with recycled content materials.

Most of our GreenStripe® items are compostable. So when you are done with these renewable GreenStripe® items, like PLA (corn plastic) products, they can be disposed of in a commercial compost facility instead of the landfill. Here they are retuned to the soil as compost.

Our BlueStripe™ items are made from post-consumer recycled PET plastic so we are excited to give a second (or third) life to these materials. For these items, please dispose of them responsibly and only recycle them if they are accepted.

Note: It can be tricky to tell the difference between a clear PLA corn cup and a nearly identical cup made from petroleum-derived plastic like PET or even recycled PET. Check out the resin identification number on the bottom of the cup – PLA cups are with #7 and PET cups are #1.

Recycling facilities can have problems with PLA items, so it is important to separate compostables from recyclables into "clean" waste streams. Because PLA and PET mix about as well as oil and water, recyclers consider PLA a contaminant and compost facilities have a hard time cleaning it out of the compost.

Today, there are a number of paper cup recycling schemes, however they have a limited spread throughout Europe. This is because separating the cups’ film lining from the paper can be difficult and because food contamination can decrease the value of the material.

Hot cups in our GreenStripe® line (i.e., GreenStripe, WorldArt) are made with renewable resources. These cups are made with paper from trees harvested in North America; they are lined with a biobased plastic. They are certified to be commercially composted after use. If you are not lucky enough to have a commercial composter in your area, these cups should be sent to the landfill.

The answer is: it depends!

Here at EcoProducts, we look at our products from a life cycle perspective. Our cups have a beginning, middle and end of life. For our cold cups, some of them have great beginning of life attributes, while the others offer great end of life benefits. However, a key piece of the environmental success of our products depends on you. Simply choosing Eco-Products over conventional products helps drive markets, keep good companies like us in business and show the industry where consumers are motivated. If that is all you can do right now, that is a great start! Some of you can do more by composting or even recycling (where accepted) some of our products. The best environmental solution is the one that works with you.

See our GreenStripe® and BlueStripe™ page to learn more about each product's attributes and what fits into your life right now.

Compostable items are designed to be composted in a compost heap only. Composting is a very specific process which does not occur in landfills. Microorganisms, carbon, water, oxygen and nitrogen are all essential parts of the compost process and these factors need to be present in the right circumstances (such as in a compost pile) for composting to occur.

If compostable products are placed in an open landfill or dump where oxygen is available, they will decompose at a rate similar to other biodegradable materials in the same setting. If compostable products are placed in the more common anaerobic (air-locked or capped) landfill and deprived of oxygen and micro-organisms, then the ability of the compostable products to decompose will be severely restricted. This is true of all biodegradable materials placed in this setting, including paper, yard waste and food waste.

In a capped landfill (the most common type of landfill in the Europe and US), our products and most plastics will remain stable and not be a significant contributor to methane emissions as far as we know. Compostable PLA plastic breaks down in aerobic composting scenarios best, and composting is not a significant source of methane. Composting is a specific aerobic (oxygen rich) process which occurs in in-vessel composters and compost piles, not inside sealed anaerobic (oxygen deprived) landfills. Other bioplastics have shown different results in landfills, and some bioplastics are being engineered to behave differently in landfills. Eco-Products uses PLA plastic exclusively in our compostable products, and it is tested and clearly marked for commercial compost.

Methane in landfills results from organic materials that end up in anaerobic (air-locked or capped) landfills and are deprived of oxygen and micro-organisms. Over long periods of time, organic material slowly degrades anaerobically resulting in the creation of methane gas. Methane gas is more harmful to the atmosphere than CO2 over its lifetime. Landfills are the second largest source of man-made methane emissions in the US, and much of this is attributed to the long legacy of organic matter anaerobically decomposing in the landfill and making methane gas. This is why it is more important than ever to keep as much organic matter like food scraps, yard waste, and agricultural waste out of the landfill. Plastics are generally stable in the landfill, and things like foam will stick around for a very long time – we are not sure when they will ever really break down.

The number inside the chasing arrow symbol is called a resin code - it indicates the type of plastic the product is made with. On our products, the #7 code indicates Ingeo™ PLA.

In the wider world of plastic containers, the #7 is a catchall category that includes a variety of plastics and plastic composites. So keep in mind that not all containers labeled with #7 are made with PLA. Look for additional labeling like "Compostable" or "OK Compost" logo to determine if a container is compostable.

No. Our products are BPA free. The cups and containers we sell are not made from plastics where there is a BPA risk. Most of our plastic products are made with plant-based PLA. We're happy to provide verification or more information. Just email our experts at Europe Sales..

PLA or "corn plastic" is a biopolymer made from polylactic acid (PLA) that can be derived from starchy plants like corn, potatoes, tapioca, sugarcane, and soy protein. PLA is typically made from corn kernels that are milled and processed to extract the starch which is then converted into plastic.

PLA is approved for food contact under both European and US regulation well-suited for a variety of packaging applications, but it is not recommended for human or animal consumption.

While PLA is a corn-derived plastic, the extreme heat used in processing transforms it considerably and destroys any immunologically reactive profilin. Because of this, PLA should not cause an allergic reaction.

Our corn PLA resin is is a mixed stream of non-GM and GM corn. During the manufacturing of PLA, the multiple-stage processing and high heat used to create the polymer removes all traces of genetic material, rendering it inert once it has been made into resin. Therefore, there is no GM material in our products, even though the feedstock is GM.

Nonetheless, we would prefer that only non-GM plants were used to make in the PLA in our products. Unfortunately, today the vast majority of corn grown is genetically modified. To be assured of non-GM feedstock, we would need to source PLA made only from USDA certified organic corn. Doing this is technically and economically impractical. It would price our products beyond the reach of many potential customers.

We recognize the value of sustainable, organic agriculture and follow the debate and the scientific research surrounding GM crops. One day, we hope to bring you exclusively non-GM PLA, but unfortunately the infrastructure is not there yet for us – or our industry.

Currently our supplier uses the dextrose made from No. 2 yellow dent corn because it is the most abundant and cheapest source of a fermentable sugar available in the U.S. In the future, the biopolymer they produce could use other sugars or non-food biomass as feedstock, but at capacity, NatureWorks uses less than one percent of the available U.S. corn crop.

While PLA is compostable, it will only biodegrade in the right conditions. Commercial compost facilities have the capacity to maintain ideal composting conditions and sustained heat and moisture needed for PLA to break down entirely with the appropriate soil bacteria, yeast, and fungi. In a landfill, our products are stable and do not breakdown readily. Landfills are anaerobic environments that are sealed. PLA does not degrade readily in these situations and according to our suppliers of PLA, it is not a significant contributor to landfill methane. We recommend disposing of PLA products in a commercial compost facility only.

Yes. We recommend that our PLA containers be stored at temperatures less than 105°F (40°C). Remember to keep these products out of direct sunlight and in a cool, dry place. Keep in mind that our Plantware™ cutlery is made with a slightly different process that gives it a heat tolerance of about 93°C (200°F).

Bagasse/sugarcane is a byproduct of making sugar. When sugarcane stalks are harvested, they're pressed to release their juices that get processed into sugar. Then, rather than burning or throwing the used sugarcane stalks away, the fibrous pulp is made into a paper-like substance called bagasse which is then formed into a wide variety of products like containers, plates, and bowls.

Bagasse or sugarcane is fully compostable and breaks down best in commercial compost facilities. In commercial composting conditions, bagasse will compost in approximately 45-60 days.

No. Our sugarcane products are not GMO free. This would require sourcing only certified organic sugarcane. Since the sugarcane used in our products is grown in Asia and is not certified USDA organic, we cannot assure that it is free of GMO material.

We whiten our bagasse with a process that uses chlorine dioxide, but not elemental chlorine. Elemental chlorine (Cl2) generates compounds called dioxins, which are very bad for human health. Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) (used in our whitening process) does not generate dioxins and is thus the better choice.

rPET is recycled PET (or Polyethylene terephthalate) plastic. PET is it is one of the most common plastics in the world. You have probably seen this plastic in your soda and water bottles that are marked with the resin code #1. PET is originally produced from fossil fuels — typically natural gas and petroleum, but it is one of the easiest plastics to recycle.

We use post-consumer recycled PET plastic in our cups and containers. That way the recycled resin, rPET, becomes more accepted and valuable as people see how easy it is to include in regular items.

Our BlueStripe™ items are made from post-consumer recycled PET plastic, so we are excited to give a second (or third) life to these materials. PET is recycled in many areas across Europe, however you should always check if products are accepted in your local collection prior to disposal.

Each recycling facility has different machinery for sorting and sells recycled flake to different markets. This is why recycling varies in each town. The resin code for clear BlueStripe™ products is #1 PET and will be visible on the product. Remember to check with your local municipality or materials recovered facility (MRF for short) to see if they are accepted and if not, to learn when they will be.

For these items, please dispose of them responsibly and only recycle them if they are accepted.

Yes. Our wheat straw products are gluten free. These products are made from the straw leftover after the grain is harvested, not the grain itself. A third-party test confirmed the protein in wheat that can trigger reactions is not found in our finished products.

Our compostable items meet both EN 13432 and ASTM standards for compostability. These standards to determine if a product is compostable in a commercial facility, products cannot display the seedling or OK Compost logo, or BPI logo without meeting these standards

Our corporate head quarters is located in beautiful Boulder, Colorado.

Our European office is located in The Netherlands.

In Canada, Eco-Products is represented by Polar Pak, a Novolex brand.

Eco-Products, Inc. has been in business since 1990.

Although we are confident that we have the widest selection of compostable food service products available, we do not claim that we carry every compostable food service product that is made. Technology for compostable products is improving everyday. We try to keep up with all of the latest innovations and we are open to carrying any product that meets our product qualifications.