I knew World Centric
from their movie series. That's a monthly show of some movie that has
the ability to teach something about the international situation. One
movie I remember was Farmer John, the story of a farmer in Illinois
that had debt problems and learned how to save his farm by going
organic. Another was Wetback, the story of the long journey from some
South American pesant existance to the good life, a job in the USA. So
many of the shows taught me something about the state of international
trade. I went to the party because I was curious about their
"warehouse". I was a bit surprised by what I saw.
The space was big.
Everywhere there were boxes stacked to the roof, many with "World
Centric" on them.
Aseem was the host. He smiled a lot,
and mainly acted gracious. There was good food, good music, and lots of
interesting people. I spent considerable time wandering around talking
to friends and making aquantances.
After a while people started sitting
down. Eugene gave an overview of World Centric's past activities. He
explained that it had been founded as a non-profit, designed to build
awareness of and progress towards environmental solutions. In doing
this, they had discovered an unfilled niche created by styrofoam bans
in places like Berkeley. The most likely sollution was compostable
replacements, and World Centric had become an early provider.
The marketing guy took over to explain
that compostable eatingware is an exciting opportunity. Being small and
nimble, World Centric has an advantage over larger established
companies that aren't interested in change. Key challenges include
educating food service about the benefits of compostable tableware, and
paying for inventory they need to have on hand when ramping up the
market.
Despite the obsticles, World Centric is
doing a good job of signing up important customers for big orders.
Gross revenues are growing steadily.
Palo Alto City Councilmember Peter
Drekmeier said that compostable plates, cups, and utensils are all good
ideas, but if they just go in the trash like styrofoam the situation
hasn't been improved much. Palo Alto is looking into composting the
stuff used in the city. This is especially important because the city
has run out of space in the local dump, and anything that can be
diverted from landfill is a good thing. He also hopes to save the
expense of trucking the stuff away. He looks forward to showing the
rest of the country how it is done.
People gave Aseem and his wife a good
hand for their creativity and inexaustable dedication to World Centric.
Laura Stec organised the yummy organic
food.
