News

Tully's Cups: Special Treatment in the Compost

Tully's may be serving lattes in new compostable cups up and down the West Coast, but ensuring these cups break down here is complicated because they don't meet the standards of Cedar Grove Composting, which handles all of Seattle's organic scraps. Cedar Grove is still taking them in, they're just separating out all of the commercial loads that contain Tully's cups from everything else.

The issue is timing. Tully's cups meet national standards for composting in which most municipalities allow six months or more for material to break down. The concern here is that the coffee cups will muck up the expedited process at Cedar Grove, which typically takes about 74 days.

Susan Thoman, director of marketing and business development at the composter, says Cedar Grove agreed to participate in a pilot project with Tully's to separate the cups and study them because it's an opportunity to learn more about the product. (The cups, called ecotainers, are lined with a corn-based resin instead of petroleum.) However, says Thoman, the ultimate goal is to be able to send the cups through their system. Tully's doesn't currently pay extra for the special treatment. The hope is that if Cedar Grove can't find a way to work the cups in, Tully's will find a cup that works.

Ali Hummels, retail marketing manager at Tully's, says that as "pioneers" in this endeavor, they expected a few hiccups along the way. She says Seattle has the most stringent standards of all the cities their stores are in. "Ecotainer is determined to make the necessary adjustments to ensure these cups meet Cedar Grove's composting requirements," Hummels says.

The other wrinkle is that no Tully's cups (or any coffee cups, for that matter) are currently accepted in Cedar Grove's residential composting. It's simply too hard to separate them out. So be aware, coffee drinkers. Enjoy your latte in its ecotainer, but if you want it to return to the earth, be sure to toss it in a Tully's bin!

— Laura Onstot

Prince of Pot Makes a Deal

The Prince of Pot, indicted by a Seattle federal grand jury, has agreed to a five-year prison deal that will allow him to serve his time in a Canadian prison, he announced Monday. Marc Emery faced arrest if he entered the U.S., even though he was campaigning for GOP and anti-drug candidate Ron Paul (who he still faintly hopes will be elected and commute his sentence). He was accused of being a major U.S. pot distributor for his seeds-by-mail business from Vancouver. Reports Reuters:

Emery...was willing to fight the charges on principal, but said the deal is designed to help two co-accused avoid lengthy sentences in a U.S. prison and to keep him closer to family and friends. U.S. officials say Emery illegally sold millions of dollars of marijuana seeds from his business in Vancouver, but he and supporters said his activities were well known and tolerated by Canadian officials, including the federal Health Department. "My complaint is that there is no victim. Nobody who can say I hurt them, yet there are thousands of people who I can point to and say I helped," said Emery, who paid taxes on his earnings and gave money to charities and political causes.

In August, he told Seattle Weekly: "I sold millions of seeds, and sometimes made $2 million a year." But he blew much of it helping friends and causes, and is comparably broke today.

In a 60 Minutes profile of the Prince in 2006, then-U.S. Attorney John McKay called Emery "the biggest purveyor of marijuana from Canada into the United States." The DEA claimed his dope seeding resulted in 100,000 pounds of marijuana grown annually in the U.S. Over 11 years, that comes to 1.1 million pounds of dope, resulting in perhaps $2.5 billion worth of plants. "If it's true," Emery told us, "I'm proud to have brought such wealth to our [drug] community."

— Rick Anderson

Comments of the Week

In case you haven't noticed, you can now leave comments on EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE we publish. You've always been able to toss in on the blogs, but now you can spout off on our restaurant reviews, music stories, columns, and everything else.

Here's a look at a few (unedited) thoughts left on articles over the last week:

There Goes the Gayborhood

"At first I was sure this was some sort of deviant doublespeak goof - perhaps a 'smart' response to Keister's recent endorsement of Renton?

I may be wrong. I do suspect though that Kent's new business sector is more a coincidence - drawing on the entire diaspora of South King County rather than any particular concentration within that City.

Kent is also the best city in the entire region for the DIYer looking for something they won't sell at Lowes or Home Depot. FWIW a queer eye for the straight guy thing might just play in that city. If done, and priced, right.

As for gay communities down south - I think it much more likely in either Tacoma or Olympia - though I don't actively research the subject..."