In India, students at Ramjas College have developed biodegradable forks and knives from straw stubble with embedded vegetable seeds. Producing the cutlery, dubbed Waraq, will create jobs and address both the plastics waste crisis and stubble burning, an agricultural practice contributing to India’s air pollution.
“India is home to 46.6 million stunted children, most of them lacking basic nutrients,” project participant Tanya Agarwal tells Deccan Herald. “Apart from this, of the estimated 5,600 tonnes of plastic waste generated in India daily, a huge portion of single-use plastic in our collective footprint comes from dining cutlery.”
The project is in the pilot stage, and the students are looking to create a workshop to increase production.