Twenty Fifty Fork

One of the worst contributors to the global waste crisis is plastic cutlery. Each year, approximately 40 billion plastic utensils are thrown away after one use. And that's in the United States alone. But what if we had the convenience of disposable cutlery that was also made of 100% natural grains - corn, soy & wheat? Basically, what if we had edible spoons? Edible spoons would solve several problems at once. First, it would massively cut down on plastic as a waste product. More than 8.3 billion tons of plastic has been produced since the 1950s, sixty percent of which is in a landfill or the natural environment. Second, the product life cycle would be very small, as materials could be sourced from farmers, manufactured, then sold back to them. Innovators across the world are coming up with such solutions. One such inventor is Narayana Peesapaty, who has designed cutlery made from millet, rice, and wheat flour. Such solutions are coming none too soon as India is an eve...

So imagine this, you’ve picked your kid’s birthday party date, you’ve chosen the menu, and you’ve made a special trip to pick up those compostable spoons so you feel good about your carbon footprint. Only to have a guest ‘helpfully’ point out that they are a lie - the spoons actually don’t compost at all. In fact, they could still be laying there - floating among the other 40 billion plastic utensils found in landfills and the oceans - 2 years later. You may feel guilt - but don’t. It’s not your fault. Several manufacturers of these so-called ‘compostable’ spoons have been misleading consumers for years. Let’s take a deeper dive. The majority of current compostable cutlery is made from what’s called bio-plastics: plant based alternatives marketed as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic by using terminology such as biodegradable or compostable. This is true to an extent, but only if your compost pile or bin composts at an industrial level. Meaning, unless you are ab...