hi everyone welcome back to my blog, today i will be going over another product category, plastic cutlery and also a bit of why it is so important that we learn more about sustainable products.
Why is it so important that we learn about sustainable options?
Plastic is a world-wide problem and the production keeps on increasing, studies show that it has massively increased in the last 70, back in 1950 the world was producing only 2 million tonnes which actually sounds like a lot until you here that now we are producing over 420 million tonnes that is more than one hundred time more (1). A lot of the increase in plastic production is from the fact that we live a life with a lot of disposable plastic studies found that around 50% of plastics are just used once and thrown away meaning that all of those are most likely being massed produced so we have enough of them for everyone to use multiple a week (2). There are so many other concerning facts out their that make finding a better solution more important, here are just a few, only 9% of plastic actually gets recycled, one million marine animals are killed annually by plastic pollution, humans eat over 40 pounds of plastic in their life time and over ten million tonnes of plastic are dumped into are oceans annually. (2)
What are the best alternatives for plastic cutlery and takeout containers?
Plastic cutlery
According to some resources these are some of the best substitute products for plastic cutlery Is
Wooden bamboo
Pro’s: wooden bamboo Is a very popular substitute because of the price and the lack of testing required. Meaning that it is very easy to come by and most of the time it costs no extra money.
Cons: a lot of people complain about a bad after taste that they get when using wooden/bamboo cutlery which is often a big turn off for people, another pretty big con is that some wooden cutlery has been tested and found to be coated with toxic chemicals to increase shelf life. With most of the substitutes they are not always as functional as the plastic ones, wooden/bamboo are no exception they often snap or do not work efficiently.
Areca/palm leaves
Pros: Not as commonly heard of areca/palm leaves are commonly used for paper plates but with the demanded growing for plastic substitutes the manufactures decided to use the scraps from the plates to create utensils which is great because it is at least giving a purpose to scraps even though it is single use
Cons: with the amount of labour needed to create the utensils their price is higher than plastic and wood/bamboo. They much like the wooden/bamboo have been found to be coated in chemicals. When decomposing they much like wood/bamboo they realise methane gas which is 32x more polluting then co2 making them more harmful than plastic when decomposing. They also are prone to fugal attacks which can pose health concerns for people if not treated. And they also do not work as well.
Stainless steal
Pros: stainless steal utensils have been around for centuries and can be reused for decades, they definitely have the best user experience with cutting food and not braking, they also have no after taste.
Cons: stainless steel is significantly more expensive then plastic and usually it makes up for the price with the number of times you can use it but for fast food businesses it is not really possible for them to get their cutlery back from customers.
Bioplastic
Pros: it is often used by restaurants to be more environmentally friendly and with an industrial composting plant they can be
Cons: bioplastic when properly disposed can be great but often it is just put in the trash or not properly disposed of because people think that since it is marked as degradable, they can just throw it out which is not true. Often times biodegradable products if not properly disposed of it can cause more problems because it does not fully decompose and breaks up into small pieces of plastic. It also costs more than plastic.
Edible
Pros: edible cutlery are definitely the most fun cutlery on this list they are made with many different flavors to make them more appealing they also can be completely consumed making them more environmentally friendly.
Cons: although they are fun, they are not really realistic for most businesses because they are more expensive, not everyone enjoys them and they break easily. Although the product itself is completely edible it is uashually wraped in plastic for sanitary reason so it still contributes single use plastic
The list of the best
1. stainless steal- definitely the best if reused, if you would like to be more eco-friendly the best thing you can do is bring your on stainless steal cutlery to fast food places
2. bioplastic- definitely a great option if you have the proper recourses to compost it which some countries don’t which I think would eliminate this option for them
3.wooden – could use some more work I think it has great potential but it needs to be worked on to make it have less flavor and be safer to consume
4. areca leaves- this one is the same as the wood ones but it costs more so it is lover in the list
5. edible- very fun great option for things like ice crem but not really realistic for most places and it is not really affordable
Sighted from (3)
- https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution#:~:text=While%20we%20might%20think%20that,%2C%20lakes%2C%20and%20the%20ocean.hundred times more
- https://plasticoceans.org/the-facts/#:~:text=Plastic%20is%20cheap%20and%20incredibly,just%20once%20and%20thrown%20away.
- https://www.mynusco.com/eco-friendly-sustainable-alternatives-to-plastic-cutlery/