By ELSIE DENTON
News intern
June 6, 2007
Tucked away in a green-rimmed corner of downtown Hood
River, Mike’s Ice Cream gives locals and tourists alike an opportunity to
gather in the open air and enjoy the outdoors and delicious ice cream at
the same time.
Visitors to Mike’s might find that the atmosphere just
got a bit greener. This summer owner Tassie Mack and her son, Josh Kitts,
finished implementing a series of changes designed to make the ice cream
shop more eco-friendly.
Ice cream connoisseurs will now find themselves treated
to plastic forks and cups manufactured from corn and potato products,
organic cones and paper cups pressed from the stalks of the sugarcane
plant.
Normally, plastic is manufactured from petroleum and
paper pulp is wrung out of trees. Using agricultural products like
sugarcane allows disposable products to be produced sustainably since food
crops are a renewable resource and have a much shorter generation time
than trees.
According to Kitts, the eco-upgrade started last winter
when both Mike’s and The Ruddy Duck, also owned by the family, switched to
100 percent clean energy purchased through Pacific Power’s Blue Sky
program.
“We wanted to set an example,” said Kitts. “The way
things are now people are producing so much waste and pesticides that we
are ruining the planet, if not for ourselves, then for our children. We
wanted to show people that is was possible to be eco-friendly.”
Kitts said that the changes hadn’t brought much in the
way of extra costs. “We are paying a few dollars more per month for the
clean power, and since we are shipping the organic cones in from L.A.,
shipping and handling is a bit more. But it is worth it.”
Kitts expects that the changes will be appreciated by
the community. “Right now being eco-friendly is a fad, but I think it will
stick. Hopefully other businesses will follow our example. Other towns
across the U.S. have already become sustainable. I would love for Hood
River to become one of them.”
