Eat your fork: Edible cutlery maker looks to cut down on India’s plastics problem

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In India, an entrepreneur has developed edible cutlery to reduce the 120 billion disposable utensils India currently tosses in the trash annually.

Bakey’s, founded by Narayana Peesapaty in 2010, produces spoons and forks from millet, rice and wheat flour. It has since expanded into smaller spoons, bowls, and pots. The products come in plain, sweet, and spicy, and have a three-year shelf life. Eating the utensil after your meal is optional—the material decomposes within days.

Peesapaty also tells CBC, that millet absorbs liquid at a slower rate—making it suitable for cultivation in water-stressed regions.

The company struggled in its early days, after a successful crowd-funding round was sullied by production issues and a distributor dispute.  Peesapaty says, however, that the production process is still being “refined” and he’s working to catch up to orders.