SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - If it looks like plastic, feels like plastic and smells like plastic, it must be ... corn.

Well, at least that's the case for the water-filled cups Sam Gamble was handing out at last weekend's Folk on the Rocks.

New Green Party candidate Sam Gamble provided biodegradable cups made from corn at last week's Folk on the Rocks. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

Gamble is the new Green Party candidate for the Western Arctic. He's also the first to get his hands on the premier shipment of the compostable cups, which were brought into Yellowknife by Tundra Transfer.

Gamble was voted in at the June Annual General Meeting of the party's electoral district association and replaced former candidate Alexandre Beaudin. The corn cup handout was Gamble's debut event.

Parched festival-goers used more than 400 of the biodegradable cups in disguise - consuming more than 150 litres of water. Luckily for Gamble, the used cups didn't all go home with him. He plans to throw the composted results into his garden next spring.

"Quite a few people took them home to try and put in their own compost," he said. "One person was going to bring it on a canoe trip with him to see how long it lasted."

He said the event was a chance to get out and meet people in an informal setting - and also to let them know that Beaudin's departure wasn't the end of the Green presence in the North.

Not that Beaudin will be going far, yet.

"I still support (the Green Party) and I'm going to give as much advice and support as I can," said Beaudin.

The regime change, he added, was his choice.

"Sam is very keen and quite inspired and motivated. He'll take the Green Party to a more active level in the NWT."

But first, Gamble will have to build a compost heap for all those used cups.