The composting plates being tested in schools cost about $.15 a piece to make. Seven times that of the $.02 plastic plate. These composting plates, made of sugar cane, require more time to manufacture and are more complicated than their stamped out plastic cousins. It’s the future, before our eyes. What savings might accrue to a sugar cane plate vs. plastic? In most cases both will still have to be carted, but putting nutrients back into the soil will produce saving.

What is the cost of moving from antibiotic-laced chickens in our diets to organic chickens? Cents a pound? Dollars a pound? Sure.  But the back end savings of that move? Rather than having to undergo 3 different, escalated courses of drugs to knock out bronchitis, perhaps only one? Do the math.

And lastly, if a country like Mexico taxes sugar laden soda and fast food, will it begin to lose its mantle of the world’s obesity king? And will healthcare costs in Mexico reduce by billions? You know the answer.

This is not stuff of the craft economy, though craft economy acolytes are certainly supporters of a more sustainable bio-planetary model, these are simply healthy choices which at face-value don’t make economic sense. We are moving in this direction in America, slowly.  This is our awakening. Marketers who pursue this new direction – companies like Hains Celestial – will slowly win this war.  A war on waste. An economic war. Peace.