Biodegradable cutlery and its advantages to the environment and food business

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Can biodegradable packaging be used in place of plastic cutlery? Read on to discover about the advantages of biodegradable cutlery for the environment, your health, and your business.

Biodegradable Cutlery: What Is It?

Biodegradable cutlery is eating utensils composed of materials that disintegrate naturally over time, usually with the help of bacteria and microorganisms.

Biodegradable utensils are an eco-friendly alternative to plastic cutlery since it has a lower environmental impact than plastic.

What is biodegradable utensils made of?

Bioplastic

Bioplastic is also known as PLA. PLA is an abbreviation for polylactic acid. PLA is manufactured from starches such as cornstarch, rice starch, or potato starch. PLA cutlery is non-toxic, long-lasting, and available in a variety of colors.

Wooden Cutlery

Bamboo is one of the most popular cutlery materials due to its sustainability as well as its excellence. Bamboo, in particular, grows at a quick rate. Bamboo cutlery is durable, recyclable, available in a variety of natural hues, has excellent antibacterial properties, and can be used for a number of occasions.

Wood: Birchwood or pine wood are popular materials for making wooden cutlery. This substance has numerous applications and is safe for users.

Edible Cutlery

Edible cutlery is a distinct and one-of-a-kind option that is gaining popularity. Food-grade substances utilized in its production include rice flour, wheat flour, and potato starch. Because edible cutlery may be consumed after use, it is a zero-waste option.

Other Varieties

• Seaweed cutlery is made out of seaweed, which is a form of marine algae. It is a sturdy and long-lasting substance that is resistant to both heat and cold.
• Dried leaves such as areca or palm fronds can be used to make leaf cutlery. It is a portable and disposable option.
• Sugarcane Pulp: Sugarcane pulp is a natural product generated from sugarcane. This material is compostable, safe, and long-lasting.

Characteristics of Biodegradable Cutlery

• Non-toxic: Biodegradable cutlery is generally considered non-toxic. This implies that it is absolutely safe to use and will not leach harmful chemicals into your food or the environment.
• Biodegradable materials break down naturally in the presence of microbes. The breakdown of these components requires the presence of microorganisms, soil, sunlight, air, and all other factors. According to this, it can be converted into nutrient-rich fertilizers and used to produce plants.
• Biodegradable cutlery is durable and suitable for both hot and cold foods.

Difference of Biodegradable vs Plastic Cutlery

The table below defines the main differences between biodegradable vs plastic cutlery:

Biodegradable Cutlery

• Renewable resources like plant-based materials, bamboo, wood, sugarcane pulp
• Breaks down naturally by microorganisms
• Reduces environmental pollution
• Generally non-toxic
• Can be composted into a nutrient-rich soil amendment
• Surprisingly durable for hot and cold foods
• Generally more expensive than plastic cutlery

Plastic Cutlery:

• Non-renewable resources like petroleum
• Can take hundreds of years to decompose
• Contributes to environmental pollution
• May contain harmful chemicals
• Not compostable
• Durable for hot and cold foods
• Generally less expensive than biodegradable cutlery

Benefits of Biodegradable Cutlery

Environmental Benefits

Reduce resource depletion by using biodegradable cutlery made from renewable resources like cornstarch, sugarcane, or potato starch. This helps to reduce our reliance on nonrenewable resources like petroleum, which is limited and has a significant environmental impact.

Reduce Waste: Biodegradable cutlery organically degrades over time, leaving no harmful microplastic pollution in the environment. As a result, overall rubbish generation and its impact on landfills and ecosystems have decreased.

Reduce Pollution: Unlike plastic cutlery, which can release poisons into the ground and water sources during decomposition, biodegradable utensils do not release dangerous elements into the environment. This helps to reduce pollution and protect the environment from contamination.

Reduce your carbon footprint: Biodegradable utensils emit less carbon than plastic cutlery. This is due to the fact that, as compared to petroleum-based polymers, plant-based materials require less energy and resources to process.

Health Benefits

Non-toxic and safe for consumption: Biodegradable cutlery is safe for consumption. Biodegradable cutlery, such as bamboo or birch wood, contains no chemicals or coatings. As a result, they are suitable for both children and adults.

Microplastics from plastic objects can harm the environment, penetrate the food chain, and enter the human body, producing a variety of serious health problems. Using biodegradable cutlery minimizes the consumption of plastic, which reduces the amount of microplastics in the body.

Economic Benefits

Reduce landfill costs: Biodegradable cutlery naturally degrades over time, reducing the amount of rubbish disposed of in landfills. This contributes to cost savings in landfill operations and upkeep.

Improved Brand Reputation: Using biodegradable cutlery can help a company&#;s or organization&#;s reputation as an environmentally and socially conscious enterprise. This has the potential to attract additional customers and partners who care about the environment.

Long-term Sustainability: Using biodegradable cutlery contributes to long-term environmental and economic sustainability by reducing reliance on nonrenewable resources such as petroleum. This ensures that future generations will inherit a cleaner environment and a more stable economy.

Cost savings: Using biodegradable cutlery allows you to reach new consumer groups while maintaining the trust of your existing customers. This allows organizations to save marketing costs while increasing sales.

The Use of Biodegradable Cutlery

Compostable Cutlery for Parties, Picnics, Events

Biodegradable cutlery is an ideal choice for outdoor activities such as picnics and celebrations. It provides a convenient and disposable option while remaining environmentally responsible. Biodegradable cutlery may be easily composted after use, reducing waste and encouraging sustainable behaviors.

Food Service and Restaurants

Restaurants and other food service enterprises can significantly reduce their environmental effect by utilizing biodegradable cutlery. This change aligns with the growing demand for ecologically friendly dining options and demonstrates a commitment to sustainability. Biodegradable cutlery can be used for both dine-in and takeout services, making it appealing to a broad range of clients.

Food trucks and Street Vendors

Food trucks and street vendors can benefit from using biodegradable cutlery as well. Biodegradable cutlery is great for food trucks and street vendors because it is lightweight and portable.

The Pros and Cons of Using Biodegradable Cutlery for Food Business

Biodegradability Under Certain Conditions

Because not all locations have the capacity to compost biodegradable garbage, organizations must carefully prepare how they will dispose of this sort of cutlery.

Cost Considerations

Before moving to biodegradable cutlery, businesses should examine the cost difference. Find a reliable provider so that you may have consistent pricing and incentives to reduce additional expenditures.

Consumer Awareness

Businesses should explain their decision and resolve any customer concerns. Businesses might utilize social media, seasonal events, or product launches to communicate ideas and interact with customers.

Biodegradable Cutlery from Kimecopak

Kimecopak offers Biodegradable Cutlery in bulk, including biodegradable wooden and bamboo cutlery, at a consistent price for the North American market. Furthermore, Kimecopak provides a number of business solutions such as bespoke packaging, storage, scheduled shipping, and a 5&#;7% discount for long-term partners.

Learn more about Kimecopak&#;s Biodegradable Cutlery at: https://www.kimecopak.ca/collections/wooden-cutlery

In brief, Biodegradable Cutlery is a great alternative to plastic cutlery. Biodegradable cutlery has numerous environmental benefits, has no negative health impacts, and provides numerous economic benefits to businesses. Kimecopak, a reputable biodegradable cutlery provider in the North American market, has various appealing offers for your company. Please or visit the website or our Kimecopak&#;s Facebook page for more information.

Why &#;biodegradable&#; utensils aren&#;t all they&#;re cracked up to be

Plant-based, compostable or biodegradable bio-plastics, most commonly used for utensils, are marketed as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic. So is compostable better than plastic? Are they really better or, ironically, even worse than plastic?

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We sat down with Céline Jennison, the founder of Plastic Tides, a nonprofit organization based in Ithaca, NY, that combines adventure & science to address plastic pollution via stand-up paddleboard expeditions. She explained why compostable or biodegradable products, a seemingly good alternative to plastic, might be even worse than plastic. She also shared her favorite alternatives and some solutions that you can easily integrate into your lifestyle.

When the packaging on a bio-plastic product says biodegradable or compostable, what does this really mean?

Essentially, it means that in an industrial composting facility&#;where they are able to break the bio-plastic down into tiny pieces and compost it with very high heat&#;it will biodegrade or compost.

So are the products really compostable by a regular person?

In a home-scale compost bin, they won&#;t really break down. In order to break down, they must be composted in an industrial composting facility where temperatures get very high due to the immense volume of compost. Another issue is that even when they are composted, the quality of the compost is not very good. The &#;compostable&#; bio-plastics break down into a very sticky, resin-y debris that creates poor compost that&#;s not rich and nutritious for plants like compost from truly organic materials.

In Ithaca, NY, where I undertook my undergrad at Cornell University, the city doesn&#;t allow people to put compostable utensils into the waste stream because of the various issues.

Is it true that most of the products labeled biodegradable, degradable, compostable, etc., actually can&#;t be recycled?

That&#;s correct. They can&#;t be recycled because they&#;re not plastic. If you put them into recycling, it can screw up the waste stream. Even when you&#;re recycling plastic, the plastic has to be separated by colors. So when the recycling arrives at the sorting facility, if they find items that can&#;t be recycled such as the compostable utensils, rather than taking the time to sort it all out, they just send it [all] to the landfill. There&#;s a big potential negative impact on the recycling stream as well.

For example, if a restaurant offers "compostable" utensils when people get take-out, the odds that their customers are properly disposing of that compostable utensil are really low. And if they&#;re offering them in the restaurant and sending them to an industrial facility, they need a lot of signage to make sure that people put them in the composting and not in the recycling; and [they need to] sort through the recycling to remove any compostable utensils that were tossed in. Otherwise, it&#;s likely the entire batch of recycling will just end up in the landfill.

A student volunteer at the Floyd Fest music festival in Floyd, VA, feeds the compostable utensils into a shredder, which cuts them into tiny pieces so they decompose in the compost pile more quickly.

That certainly defeats the purpose. Are there other negative outcomes beyond potentially creating more waste?

Yes. It takes a lot of resources to create a biodegradable or compostable utensil or piece of dishware.

Most of the compostable utensils are made with corn. Corn is an annual crop that is intensive to grow and is usually grown in a monoculture system. It has to be seeded and watered, and the soil tilled. The corn that is used to make the bio-plastics is not organic, and there&#;s a lot of pesticide use as well. The end result is that valuable agricultural land was used to create something that just gets thrown away.

Then, there&#;s the environmental cost of disposal but also the environmental impact of the resources to make and transport the product in the first place.

There&#;s also the irony that the compostable utensils usually come wrapped in a plastic film that&#;s not biodegradable or recyclable. So there are a lot of costs, including the fact that the compostable utensils are more expensive than reusable items that can be washed and used for years.

So you&#;re saying that these products might be the worst of the worst! Would you say that recyclable plastic is a better alternative?

It all depends on the situation and how the plastic, or bio-plastic, is disposed of. If you&#;re going to recycle a plastic utensil, from an environmental standpoint, it&#;s actually a better choice than a compostable product, unless you&#;re sure the compostable item will be composted in an industrial facility.

But if a bio-plastic fork, for example, ended up floating around in the ocean, wouldn&#;t it eventually break down, unlike plastic?

No. The fork made from bio-plastic would act just like plastic and [only] break down into smaller and smaller pieces because it needs a high temperature to really break down.

What&#;s another misconception people have about bio-plastic utensils and other dinnerware like plates and cups?

The biggest issue is that it sends the message that we can still live in a disposable economy and have it both ways. Recycling is similar. By recycling, people feel that they&#;re doing their part for the environment, when what we really need to do is produce less waste in the first place.

What about big events like concerts, sports events, weddings or parties?

If you&#;re hosting a big event like a music festival, there are better options than bio-plastics. If you need disposable plates, bowls or eco utensils, using soft, fast-growing trees or bamboo&#;i.e., primary organic materials that can truly be composted&#;is a better choice.

You can also buy plates and bowls made out of leaves and other organic materials. The great thing about these is that they are visibly compostable, so if you are composting at your event, it&#;s more likely guests will understand what to do with them. For cups and plates, choosing unbleached cardboard without plastic or wax linings, which again can truly be recycled or composted, is also a better choice. So with a little research, you can find better alternatives to fake bio-degradable stuff.

For a big event such as a wedding or party, you can put in place a zero-waste party plan by schooling up on a few tips and tricks. Or hire a company that will provide the reusable cups and plates, deliver them, and picks them up after. If you&#;re hiring a caterer, make sure they use real dishware and utensils!

What&#;s the best alternative?

Bring your own! There are so many great products on the market that make it really easy to bring reusables with you whenever you&#;re out and about.

What are some of your favorite reusable solutions?

Well, obviously ECOlunchbox! I like the Splash Box from the Blue Water Bento collection because I often make salads to go, and I can fit a lot more of my salad inside. Their ECOstainless Spork is great for soup, too.

Klean Kanteen is my go-to water bottle; reusable steel or bamboo utensils; machine-washable lunch bags; canvas bags for shopping; and I have an insulated food container that I&#;ve had for years and a stainless steel insulated mug.

What else should people think about if they&#;re trying to reduce their impact and live more sustainably?

There are other things that are part of the reusable, sustainable lifestyle. For example, I make all of my body care products, and I sew my own little bags for produce and other items that I buy at the grocery store. I also use Khala Cloths at home to wrap and preserve food instead of plastic wrap, plastic baggies or even aluminum foil.

Do you have suggestions for someone shifting to a more waste-free lifestyle?

It&#;s easier if you focus on one area of your life or a particular activity at a time. For example, you could start with how you save and preserve your food and leftovers at home, and integrate items like canning jars and Khala Cloths [reusable waxed canvas] into your kitchen. Or you could focus on solutions to single-use items when you&#;re out and about, like bringing a reusable bottle with you instead of drinking bottled water and bringing your own reusable cutlery and even a metal or glass straw. You could focus on shopping, starting with bringing your own bags, and then move to think about how things are packaged, and bring your own container to your local market and bulk-food store.

Two golden rules to the zero waste lifestyle are (1) planning ahead and (2) refusing unnecessary things. There&#;s no denying that zero waste practitioners spend time planning ahead, especially when traveling. And we&#;ve learned to refuse stuff like plastic-wrapped candy, useless freebies handed out at events and all the rest of it.

I call this journey toward waste-free living the Zero Waste Voyage; if you were to imagine yourself going on an expedition on a paddleboard and only had one tiny jar to carry your trash, what excess packaging could you eliminate in your life? (Ladies: single-use sanitary products? Men: single-use razors?) The second aspect of this voyage is that you won&#;t become a guru overnight, but if you take it step by step and keep building on your success, over time you&#;ll be able to reduce your waste dramatically by putting together a tiny zero-waste travel kit. In many cases, this can save you tons of money!

About Céline Jennison and Plastic Tides:

Céline is an avid water woman, outdoor educator, and sustainability consultant. She has been making her own medicine and cosmetics since the age of 12 and holds a BSc. from Cornell University in Plant Science and an MPhil from Oxford University in Environmental Change and Management.

As an undergraduate, she co-founded the nonprofit plastic Tides&#;combining adventure and science to address plastic pollution via stand- up paddleboard expedition, education, and outreach. Céline is an inspirational public speaker and uses the prism of an expedition to encourage people to reduce waste in their day-to-day life.

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