EDIBLE CUTLERY
We all know that plastic cutlery is a major contributor to the growing plastic waste crisis. An estimated 40 billion plastic utensils are used and thrown away each year in the United States alone.
Narayana Peesapaty, a former ICRISAT researcher is from Hyderabad, India. He researched and created an eco-friendly alternative to disposable utensils prepared with plastic, wood and bamboo.
He started a company, “Bakeys” and started producing single-use edible spoons, forks and chopsticks which can be consumed after their intended use. He uses all-natural ingredients, (primarily) sorghum (jowar), and other types of flours such as wheat, rice, and millet. The spoons are manufactured in several flavors, such as cumin, mint-ginger, carrot-beetroot and sugar.
The company sold 2.5 million spoons last year to catering companies in India and has several hundred international customers.
Please watch their video which is going viral:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73jPh0eRP-Y&t=370s
Narayana Peesapaty the founder and directing manager of Bakey`s, an Indian cutlery company, has a possible solution—spoons and forks you can eat.
His edible cutlery is made from millet, rice and wheat flours and was the first of its kind when it was developed in 2010. Today, Peesapaty is one of several players in the edible cutlery game, a burgeoning niche that`s created buzz among consumers but received lukewarm reception from environmentalists.
Peesapaty said he was inspired to create the product while watching his country`s plastic problem mount and the use of plastic utensils become more routine. It`s estimated that India discards about 120 billion pieces of disposable plastic utensils each year.
He said he was also concerned about the health effects of plastic utensils, given that research had found that chemical components in plastic products can leach into food.
With a background in groundwater research, Peesapaty said he also wanted to use a raw material that wouldn`t put much pressure on India`s already depleted water resources. That`s why the utensils are made mostly with millet. The ancient African grain absorbs liquids at a slower rate and is suitable for cultivation in semi-arid areas.
The vegan edibles come in three different flavours — plain, sweet, and spicy — and have a shelf life of about three years. If users don`t feel compelled to eat their cutlery at the end of their meal, the spoons and forks will naturally decompose within four to five days — if they`re not eaten by an animal first. But the edible cutlery cannot be reused.
The cutlery also requires significant resources for packaging and shipping. Since the edible cutlery are more likely than plastic to break, the cutlery is packaged in paper bags and boxed in styrofoam, Peesapaty told CBC News.
And since the Bakey`s cutlery is only made in India, it must be shipped or flown to other countries, where plastic cutlery could be made or sourced locally.
The company sold 2.5 million spoons last year to catering companies in India and has several hundred international customers.
Bakeys was founded by Narayana Peesapathy in 2010 in Hyderabad. In April 2016, it earned a crowd-funding of around ?25 lakh (US$36,000) from 1500+ backers through Ketto with its initial goal being only ?1 lakh (US$1,400).[8] Following this support, the company started a Kickstarter campaign to increase its reach.[4][9] In April 2016, the company had 30 employees.[6] As of May 2017 the company had not yet started shipping to backers of the Kickstarter, though shipments of the spoons to customers in India, has been proceeding without issue.[10] Many Kickstarter backers are currently attempting legal action against Bakeys due to no response after pledging over $250,000 in US dollars.
