IP, National Park Foundation Launch Commemorative National Park Cups

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Through a partnership with the U.S. National Park Foundation, International Paper Co., Memphis, Tenn., USA, is launching a series of commemorative national park cups, available for use by parks, concessionaires, and others. The cups - IP's commercially compostable ecotainer - feature eight different artistic renderings of iconic national parks along with an educational message about conservation and environmental stewardship. The cups use paperboard from the company's Riegelwood, N.C., mill that is coated at its Prosperity, S.C., extrusion plant, and formed into cups at its Kenton, Ohio, foodservice facility.

IP will donate one penny for each commemorative cup sold, up to $1 million, to the National Park Foundation to be used to support the Foundation's efforts to promote and protect U.S. national parks. The ecotainer cups can be purchased for use by any national park, concessionaire, or other organization that would like to support the parks. The cups feature iconic national parks - five hot cup designs and three cold cup designs – and come in assorted sizes.

"International Paper has a strong legacy of environmental responsibility, and our ecotainer compostable foodservice products are just one example of our stewardship," said John Faraci, IP's chairman and CEO and National Park Foundation board member. "We are proud to honor our national parks through this commemorative cup and are looking forward to working with the parks and others to develop composting and recycling solutions."

In conjunction with the launch of the national park cup, IP has recently partnered with the Grand Teton Conservation District to conduct a waste characterization study at the Grand Teton National Park. The study, funded in part by IP, is aimed at identifying best practices in foodservice waste reduction and composting solutions in order to transfer that knowledge to national parks throughout the country. The national park ecotainer cup is being used as part of the study.