Started in 2010 Bakey’s Food, established in India was created to use as an alternative to disposable plastic/wood cutlery and bamboo chopsticks.
Worldcentric.org estimates 40 billion plastic utensils are used every year in just the United States. The majority of these are thrown out after just one use. Although plastic can be recycled, only 6% of all plastic waste is recycled in the US. Furthermore, most plastic cutlery is made from Styrofoam and is very difficult to recycle. The problem is that these plastic spoons that are rarely used and then easily disposed but hard to recycle and impossible to compost.
In the past there has been interesting alternatives like wooden or even bamboo utensils however this is the first time that I have heard of an edible spoon!
This spoon is made of flour and baked in the oven; with customizable flavours it’s an interesting way to eat food. However, there are limitations, because of the edible nature of the spoon, it gets soggy after 10 minutes dipped in liquids, which is not ideal. But other than that, I think the spoon has huge potential, what are your thoughts on this innovation? Do you think it will work? It seems like there is a trend towards compostable material whether in packaging or in utensils that is replacing the traditional plastic.
Last but not least some interesting infographics about plastics!
Interestingly enough, my sister actually told me about these edible pieces of cutlery just the other day! The potential for these is huge- according to Forbes, Indians alone use over 120 billion pieces of plastic cutlery… If even just India fully converted to edible cutlery it could make a large positive impact on landfills. Imagine if most of the world switched over! I looked on the edible cutlery website for more information and learned that you can buy 100 spoons for ~$5 CAD which is really inexpensive. One of the only semi–large issues I could see is the fact that you’re supposed to consume all 100 spoons within a relatively short time frame once opening the package otherwise they lose their ‘crispiness’.
I’ve looked into Bakeys also. My take on it is still questioning the process. It’s great to have green and sustainable ideas, but I wonder if the production process and effort required to make edible cutlery itself is sustainable to be worth it. Of course, they deserve a big applause for what they’ve accomplished.
I saw this on Facebook the other day as well! It seems like an amazing initiative, and I would actually prefer edible cutlery rather than traditional plastic ones. When I go out for food, sometimes I keep the plastic cutlery and bring it home. After washing them, I one in my purse just in case I might need it again when I’m out. This has helped me a TON in dire situations, but I do feel guilt when I do have to throw them out. Even though the cutlery can get soggy in 10 minutes, I still think that is enough time to quickly finish the food. Perhaps there will be a longer lifespan of these utensils down the road.