Eat Your Spoon Before Dessert

I remember when Facebook was the hottest form of social media out there. All the way back in the 7th grade, I begged my mom to let me make a Facebook profile, and once I got one I, along with all of my 12 year-old friends, thought the website was all the rage. Unfortunately, sometime in the past few years the organization was overrun by parents and even grandparents. The whole website lost that "cool" effect it once had on prepubescent me. Regardless, I find myself occasionally steering back to my Facebook days, and sometimes I actually find some really interesting videos on my feed.

One of the videos I recently saw described a new form of cutlery that not only has the potential to end world hunger, but can also solve some of the world's worst pollution problems. That's right, somebody actually invented edible spoons and sporks. 

So for my last blog post, I thought I would explain this tasty solution to plastic pollution instead of giving the usual spiel about recycling we hear almost everyday. These spoons can completely replace plastic cutlery- and they're much cheaper than plastic, too. 

But before we dive into the spoons, let me clarify exactly how harmful plastic is to our environment. 

For starters, plastic easily finds its way into landfills, where it takes hundreds of years to biodegrade and uses valuable space that could be filled by non-recyclable wastes. According to Livestrong, these landfills often opt to incinerate the plastic they receive, which releases copious irritants into the air and soil. The chemicals in those irritants can harm human health, crops, and animals that feed off affected plants. Livestrong also describes how plastic requires large amounts of crude oil to be manufactured, which is a nonrenewable resource that is quickly depleting. The less plastic being produced, the less natural oil being consumed, which helps our environment overall.

Also hurting the environment is the pollution emitted from the plastic factories. As I've mentioned in previous posts, greenhouse gas secretion from power plants is a substantial contributor to global climate change and the decaying of the ozone layer. The EPA explains in a Stanford magazine that for every ounce of PET plastic produced by these power plants, an ounce of carbon dioxide is released to the air we breathe. That statistic tells us that we are emitting 500 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere worldwide every year, just from plastic production. 

Lastly, plastic is a main cause for marine animal death. One Green Planet says that sea turtles, sea lions, seabirds, fish, and even dolphins are all dying as a result of plastic waste in their oceans. Whether the animals are ingesting the material or getting strangled by it, plastic waste kills over 100 million sea animals each year we ignore the problem. By eliminating the need for plastic, these animals will be safe to roam their natural habitat (not to mention the added benefit of having clean and non-polluted oceans). 

Therefore, one way to solve the problem of plastic pollution is to eradicate the need for plastic cutlery. Narayana Peesapaty, an Indian man who was desperate to save his country from becoming a plastic waste land, created edible spoons out of millet, rice, and flour, eliminating the use of plastic in utensils. Mashable says the spoons can withstand over 20 minutes of exposure to hot liquids, and they even come in a variety of fun flavors. The spoons run cheaper than normal utensils and have a shelf life of up to 3 whole years. 

a picture of the tasty spoon creations

*photo courtesy of Smart Cooky*

Adding to the spoon's convenience is their biodegradability. If the spoons are not consumed after use, they decay in as little as four days- a seemingly minuscule amount of time when compared to their plastic counterparts. No carbon is emitted from the spoon's manufacturing station, and no crude oil is wasted when creating them. Peesapaty says he plans to create forks, knives, plates, and cups in the future, as well.

While these delicious eating utensils have not made their way to the supermarkets yet, I would highly suggest implementing them in your dinner plans when the time does come. Plastic's immensely toxic effects on our environment dictate an urgent need for change. Edible spoons are just the beginning, but its a great start to ending plastic pollution. Plus, who wouldn't want the ability to eat their spoon for dessert? It's the ultimate way to save the environment... in style.