The Mulch Store – Now Accepting EcoPods!
Happy Earth Day, friends!
We feel like we’re doing our small part to make the world a little brighter by standing up for better taste and less waste and offering our 100% Compostable* EcoPods, made with plant-based materials. In the spirit of Earth Day, we wanted to tell you more about Cameron’s efforts in supporting the growth and expansion of local industrial compost facilities!
If you’ve read some of our prior posts (like this one or this one), you know that here at Cameron’s we are working very hard at creating a growing list of compost facilities that will accept your used Cameron’s Coffee EcoPods! We know not all of our always smooth, never bitter fans live in Minnesota. But for those that do, we’re excited to announce another huge partner who has tested and approved the acceptance of your compostable* EcoPods, the Mulch Store.
Our 2018 summer intern connected with Jake, our contact at The Mulch Store, back in August and that’s when we began our testing efforts. Unfortunately, the first results weren’t documented, so being the great partner that he is, Jake offered to test them again and this time document the progress so we could share it with you!
Here’s what Jake told us: “I tested 3 groups of the EcoPods with 6 pods in each group, totaling 18. Group One was used pods, Group Two was unused and straight out of the package, and Group Three had the coffee removed from the pods with a small slit and tied with blue marking tape.
A mesh laundry bag was filled with the pods and other known compostable materials to represent typical composting conditions. The bag was secured with a rope and buried in a newly created windrow (a long line or row of heaped material) on January 10th.
Temperatures were taken near-daily next to the bag and recorded (we didn’t include the entire temperature chart but throughout the ~1.5 months Jake tested the product the temperature on average was 133 degrees F).
Jake then went on to explain how the compost test performed. “The bag was removed from the pile today (Feb. 26th) and inspected. My first observation was that the material both in and around the mesh bag had a higher moisture content that we ideally want. This wasn’t surprising considering the snowfall we’ve had over the past month.
I opened the bag and spread the contents onto a tarp to inspect. Overall the pods performed quite well, as I was only able to recover a small bag full of residuals along with the blue marking tape. The remnants of the rings were very brittle, and would break up with any bit of agitation. The lids that were found were also very fragile, and would tear when grabbed. I was not able to recover any bits of mesh filter.”
Anyway, to keep a long story short(ish), we’re proud to share that The Mulch Store is another compost partner that will accept your used EcoPods for composting. If you live in Hennepin, Ramsey or Dakota county in Minnesota and are currently signed-up for a residential compost program, make sure you include your used EcoPods in your compost piles! To sign-up and learn more, check out this link.
Keep checking back for more updates on our composting efforts & happy Earth Day!
*Compostable in industrial facilities. Check locally, as these do not exist in many communities. No current certification for backyard composting.
