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Reduce, reuse, recycle: Getting The Most Out Of Your Fiorello’s Pint

Flowers in plastic pints
Here at Fiorello’s Artisan Gelato, we’re all about reducing, reusing,  and recycling. Occasionally, we’re asked why we use plastic containers for our cups and pints of gelato, instead of paper products. The answer is complicated, but we think it makes a lot of sense:
 
In theory, paper cups sound more eco-friendly than plastic cups but, they’re often not. Every year, the world goes through billions of paper cups and containers. To meet health and hygiene requirements, most of these products are made from virgin materials (trees), as opposed to recycled paper. Unfortunately, this practice is not very sustainable.

To make things worse, products that store food require an inner plastic film coating to prevent leakage,usually comprising up to 5% of the overall materials. These components make the packaging as-is impossible to properly recycle, and must be removed.

As you might imagine, this is not done by hand, and takes a specific (and expensive) type of machinery to do so, which most paper recycling facilities do not have. For this reason, in many cases, paper food storage products are simply thrown in the garbage, and thus the entire concept of recycling is lost. This is why, as of now, we feel that using 100% recyclable plastic is the most sustainable and responsible practice for our small business to mitigate our environmental footprint.

The best thing about our containers is that they can be reused in some really helpful ways!

Before we toss our empty pints into the recycle bin, we always look for new and creative ideas for repurposing them. We regularly pot flowers (did you know that “Fiorello” means little flower” in Italian?), store leftover meals, and hold office supplies and small appliances like screws, nuts, and bolts in our garage. The possibilities are endless!

While these are just a few of the things we do in the Fiorello’s household, we really want to hear how you reuse your Fiorello’s containers.

Have a great idea? Let us know!

Show us how you get creative and we’ll repost our favorite pictures shared with us. Make sure to tag #FiorellosGelato! 

@fiorellosgelato

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About us

Fiorello’s Artisan Gelato is a local gelato and sorbet manufacturer located in San Rafael, CA since 1982.

Fiorello’s prides itself on the development of distinctively delicious flavors that result in a rich, pure, dense, and intense gelato!

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