[Courtesy of Bakeys]
A Kickstarter project to produce edible cutlery in India is getting the world's attention as it is earth-friendly and tasty.
More than 120 billion pieces of plastic cutlery are used in India every year. Not only the cutlery affects earth by pollution created during its making, the cutlery does not rot, so they are a big problem after usage.
Narayana Peesapaty, a researcher from India's International Agricultural came up with an idea to change the game. He started fundraising for edible cutlery project. The researcher got the idea of the edible cutlery from the people of Gujarat, located I the western parts of India, using khakra crackers as spoons during mealtimes. Khakra is a thin cracker made of bean, rye and other grains.
Peesapaty immediately established Bakeys and started manufacturing edible cutlery made out of a mixture of red beans, rice, millet, and wheat flours. The cutlery comes in three flavors, sweet, spicy and plain.
According to Bakeys, the edible cutlery maintains its hardness for 15 minutes even when it comes in contact with hot water and food. It softens afterwards, and by the time its user finishes a meal, it is soft enough to be consumed. If the edible cutlery is not eaten, and thrown away, it bio-degrades in four to five days. "Insects love the cutlery," said Bakeys.
Manufacturing costs were cut down to match the plastic cutlery, and Peesapaty expects the costs will drop even further. "Plastic is very cheap, true. But I can make it as cheap. I can with volumes, and once I get the volumes, I can go to the farmers directly and start procuring raw material directly from the farmers, in which case my spoons will be as cheap as the plastic spoons."
Bakeys already sold 1.5 million pieces of edible cutlery so far, and have raised three times more than its original Kickstarter fundraising goal of US$ 20,000.
Although Bakeys succeeded in the Kickstarter program, Peesapaty's aim is to change the people's lifestyle. "Bakeys exists to protect the environment and people's health," Peesapaty said. "We are too used to using plastic cutlery. If we fail to change the people's lifestyle, then it will be like as if we failed our final goal. It will be disposable like everything else."
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reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com