A leader in the space is Starbucks who has spent years trying to develop a more earth friendly coffee cup. Currently Starbucks uses cups that have 10% recycled paper. A good start, but still leaves room for further progress. In California, a ban has been made against styrofoam to-go containers. In the city of San Francisco, a ban on plastic grocery bags is taking effect. California is taking the lead in the green container/packaging movement. The downside is that it is serving as a cost burden to store and restaurant owners. The green materials movement needs help from those in D.C. and Sacramento to get faster traction.

In order to level the playing field between the costs for green containers versus non-biodegradable containers, a tax on materials like styrofoam could reduce the current price advantage of non-biodegradable packaging over greener alternatives. The dollars collected on this toxic-tax could be used to fund R&D in green alternatives and/or to provide incentives for sales of green alternatives. It would be great if a break-through material emerges from increased funding in the green packaging that is not only environmentally friendly, but cost effective. The top innovative corporations have proven to step up to the challenge when new emerging markets are created by a change in consumer sentiment or regulatory environments. Dow Corporation came up with the amazingly cost-effective, light-weight and thermal insulating material polystyrene 50 years ago. Unfortunately, polystyrene is not easy to dispose. Hopefully somewhere there is a green version being developed that can replace this amazing material. We need our brightest minds working on solving such challenges, and perhaps regulation will be needed to provide the necessary incentive to make this happen sooner than later.