Green Paper Products Are Part of the Solution

Here are just two things you can learn from Harry Goodfriend and Steven Saks:

• Regular paper cups are lined with a petroleum product to prevent leaking. They sell compostable paper cups lined with a corn product that also prevents leaking.

• Styrofoam clamshells for your restaurant leftovers are made of petroleum and they will sit in landfills forever unchanged. Goodfriend and Saks sell compostable clamshells made from sugarcane refuse.

The boyhood friends know all about such things because they sell biodegradable and compostable products through their online company, Green Paper Products, 17 Alpha Park, Highland Heights.

Their products – hot and cold cups, plates, clamshells, trash bags, straws, cutlery, plates and bowls – will compost into soil within 50-100 days.

They ship nationwide, and their Neoga, IL, warehouse ensures delivery "no more than four business days to any location in the continental U.S.," Goodfriend said.

Although most of their customers are in California and New York, they will also sell from their Alpha Park location.

But it’s more than just a business to them. Saks, a former dentist, and Goodfriend, a former envelope salesman, are fervent environmentalists.

"We want to be part of the solution," Saks said. "Our stuff composts. It’s made from renewable resources. You’re putting it back in the ground and it doesn’t lay there inert forever. Nothing happens to styrofoam."

The products cost more than their commercial counterparts, Goodfriend said, but they are confident that will change as U.S. manufacturers move into a market dominated by Asian firms.

Meanwhile, using the products makes a statement.

"People say they want to go green as long as it’s the same price, but you can’t have your cake and eat it, too," Saks said.