EDIBLE CUTLERY 

We’ve talked about edible cutlery briefly in class on our discussions, so I thought it would be interesting to see what all the buzz was about and if it’s actually working. I came upon this Forbes article that highlights BAKEYS, a company based in India by entrepreneur Narayana Peesapaty.

He makes the utensils by blending millet, rice, and wheat flours that are then baked dry. He’s even got flavours!

“Our Edible Cutlery is meant to be eaten after use. If you do not want to eat, simply throw it away. Insects and stray animals will eat them up or they will degrade naturally in less than three days.

These are made of flours. The flours are kneaded with plain water – no additional chemicals and not even preservatives. They are 100% natural and made under strict hygienic conditions.” – Bakey’s

According to their website, the cutlery, which is really just a spoon, will naturally decompose “anywhere between 3 to 7 days if insects, dogs, birds do not eat it”. Other ingredients can also be requested to be mixed into the formula and every spoon is expected to last about 18 months. And if they’re not eaten, they will just decompose.

But as critical thinkers about sustainability marketing, we need to question again if a sustainable initiative or idea has a process behind it truly supportive of the intent? As something like this scales, I wonder if this utensil requires manufacturing of heavy machinery. The processes required for planting and harvest then producing it could use up acres of unsustainable fields, and of course synthetic fertilizers. Is this somehow better for the environment than a utensil that will be used thousands of of times? I do appreciate the progress that’s being made as disposable utensils of one form or another are here to stay.