An Eco-friendly Alternative to Plastic

TROY SWOPE AND YOKE CHUNG FOUNDERS, FOOTPRINT

Working as Intel engineers early in their career, Swope and Chung made a shocking discovery while testing plastic-wrapped supermarket foods for contamination. “No food was left untouched by plastic chemicals leaching into it,” Chung says. Every year in the U.S., 150 million tons of single-use plastic are used in consumer goods like disposable cutlery and containers. Along with the harmful health risks, less than 9 percent of this material gets recycled; the rest goes to landfills or is incinerated, releasing toxic fumes into the environment.

Swope and Chung’s solution: Create plant-based biodegradable, compostable and recyclable alternatives to single-use plastic. Their company Footprint, founded in 2014, has already eliminated more than 60 million pounds of plastic through partnerships with mega food retailers like Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Sweetgreen, Mcdonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, which use its plates, bowls, packaging and related products. Now the founders are taking their bid to save the planet to the next level with a partnership with the NBA’S Phoenix Suns, aiming to make its arena— renamed the Footprint Center this year— into an innovation lab for sustainability that can be replicated in sports venues around the world. Among the first steps: As of October, Suns fans are getting their burgers and beer served up in Footprint’s plant-based cups and containers, along with educational messages and advice about sustainability.