Since May of this year, when Island Leaf began marketing Lastic materials, many clients have asked if Lastic can provide a highly sought-after product: biodegradable lids for to-go cups. Finally, the day has come.
Lastic faced a few significant hurdles when designing biodegradable lids. The first was creating a perfectly sized mold to produce lids that could fit any cup. Incorrect sizing would have two devastating results. First, each mold comes with a $10,000.00 production cost. So, if mold sizing were off, the mold would be useless, wasting a decent sum of money. The second devastating result: all lids made from the faulty molds would be unworkable.
The second hurdle was a near catch-22. It involved creating lids thin enough to quickly biodegrade yet thick enough to deliver an optimal drinking experience. Again, failure to leap over this hurdle would result in a poor-quality and slow-to-biodegrade product.
Luckily, the Lastic engineering team partnered with a leading Taiwan-based OEM. This OEM has several years of experience in two areas. The first is designing vacuum press molds for lids. The OEM also specializes in making sheet from extrusion resin. Lastic is the first company to provide the OEM with biodegradable and compostable extrusion resin.
The results? Lastic can now produce biodegradable sippy cup and straw-accommodating lids (we recommend using only biodegradable Lastic straws.) The sippy cup lids have a heat resistance of 100°C, ideal for hot-drink sellers.
Finally, beverage vendors have a new, biodegradable choice of lid.
We don't intend to make lids the only vacuum-pressed product. We've got several other vacuum-pressed applications on the horizon. You'll have to check each week's edition of The Bamboo Press to keep up to date on the latest developments!
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