Great deals at Mombo's!

By CHRIS SMITH
PRESS DEMOCRAT COLUMNIST

Published: Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 8:44 p.m.

PIZZA BOX PERFECTION: Environmental-studies teacher Stefan Klakovich stepped into the Mombo's Pizza in Sebastopol and gaped in disbelief.

He'd just been talking to his Windsor High students about the colossal assortment of things Americans throw away every day — including a boggling number of cardboard pizza boxes.

And there was a reusable, plastic pizza box. Mombo's owner Fred Poulos just became the first North Bay pizza-maker to offer them.

Fred will sell the nifty, washable boxes for $10 at his Sebastopol and Santa Rosa restaurants, and he'll give the people who use them a $1 discount on every future pie.

With this, we have lived to see the perfecting, environmentally speaking, of the take-out pizza.

Introducing  Mombo's Re-Usable Pizza Boxes

Mombo's has introduced the first Re-usable pizza box in the North Bay at Both Mombo's Pizza stores in Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.  The box comes in three sizes, 12", 16" and 18". Although the boxes retail for $12.95 each, Mombo's is selling through to our customers at our cost of $10.00 ea. Additionally, Mombo's discounts any pizza purchased by $1.00 every time the box is returned for re-use. This means that after 10 uses the box will have fully paid for itself and thereafter your pizza order will be discounted an additional dollar every time it is re-used.

FAQ
Q. What is the re-usable box made of?
A. The box is made from re-cycled high impact (BPA Free) food grade plastic.

Q. How durable is it. How long will it last?
A. The box can be used 500+ times.

Q. What if I don't arrive with my re-usable box before my pizza comes out of the oven.
A. Should you arrive a bit late to pick up your pizza we will simply keep your pizza in one of our boxes until you arrive and then transfer it into the box you bring with you.

Q. What if I order a pizza to be delivered? How will you be able to use my box?
A. Should you tell us you have a re-usable box when you place your delivery order we will make your pizza and deliver it to you in one of our re-usable boxes and swap it out for yours when we arrive. We will then clean and sanitize the box we pick up from you and use it in the same way on the next re-usable delivery order.

Q. How difficult is the box to clean?
A. The boxes are both dish machine and hand washable.

Q. I sometimes order different sized pizzas. Do I need to buy a box for every size?
A. No. We pay the same price no matter what size the box and so will you. Simply purchase the largest size box you will need and any of the smaller pizzas you may order will easily fit into it.

Green Facts About Our Re-Usable Pizza Boxes

Why a Reusable Pizza Box
Carbon Footprint Reduction - Thinking Green

This product comprises the "Environmentally Friendly Pizza Transport" system that we recommend consumers adopt to reduce their carbon footprint and enhance their "GREEN" reuse instead of using a traditional one-time use cardboard pizza box.

The life of a traditional pizza cardboard box has a onetime one purpose use, carrying your pizza home.

Beyond manufacture, the carbon footprint of cardboard pizza boxes includes:
1. Raw material delivery
2. Multiple handling at manufacturing plant
3. Finished product to warehouse
4. Warehouse to sales distribution
5. Sales distribution to recipient distribution or transfer station
6. Recipient distributor to restaurant
7. Customer takes home
8. Waste pickup
9. Waste transfer
10. Final waste compression or recycle
 
This is for each box, each use and happens at least 2 billion times annually.

Some Interesting News

New tip from a Re-usable Pizza Box owner:
To keep the dust off the Re-usable  Pizza Box when storing in the car trunk between uses, put it into an old pillow case. It is washable and keeps the box free from dust.

A single cardboard pizza box requires 135 ounces of water to process according to the Tappan Journal

San Francisco is adopting a new ordinance that requires composting of pizza boxes that are soiled with food oils in September 2009

Why Not?

We reuse:

    * Grocery bags
    * Clothes hangers
    * Drink cups
    * Serving trays at restaurants
    * Salt, pepper and ketchup in restaurants
    * Water Bottles
    * Coffee Mugs
    * Inkjet and LaserJet cartridges

Features

The Re-Usable Pizza Box is both designed for reuse, easy cleaning, compact storage and can be used over and over again. Thus eliminating the multiple processes and mass quantities of both solid waste and the personnel time associated to traditional cardboard lifecycle options. As the Re-Usable Pizza Box reaches its "end of life" it can be recycled into some other product.

The Re-Usable Pizza box leaves no cardboard taste or aroma with the pizza, cleans easily in the sink, uses less water to clean than the repetitive manufacture process of a cardboard box and stores easily on top/side of the refrigerator, baking pan cabinet, car trunk or garage cabinet!

All of the base materials for United States sales are developed and made in the United States of BPA Free HIPS plastic. All modifications and manufacturing is completed in the United States.