And the dish ran away with the spoon

 

At our farmers market in Oakland, Blue Chair uses metal spoons for tasting, which they collect and wash every week. (Side note, the Blue Chair preserves are really delicious--worth checking out if you're in the neighborhood). However, most of our favorite frozen treat shops still rely on the traditional plastic tasting spoon.

Enter EcoTensil, the fast-composting, flat-packed, paper spoon. It's not suited for your tomato soup and grilled cheeses at home. But it's perfect for tasters at the ice cream shop or anywhere there's a need for single-use spoons. 

Business 101 lesson: I don't know the details of this "aha!" moment, but EcoTensil is pursuing a secondary market of prisons and psychiatric facilities. This is a problem I haven't really thought much about, but it makes perfect sense: In a place where even a plastic spoon can be shaped into a weapon for harming oneself or others, a paper spoon is a great solution.

 
Images from EcoTensil. Via Cool Hunting.

Picnic in eco-style

I've been researching materials lately, and I ran across Verterra. Hard to believe, but these eco-friendly dishes are made from fallen leaves and water. That's all--no plastics, binders, adhesives, lacquers, or other chemicals. The resulting product is porous, so it isn't recommended for reuse, but probably would hold up to multiple washings if you're careful. In photos, they're lovely. 

We usually party with either real plates or basic Chinet (also compostable in our industrial city system), but the first really good excuse I have to use these, I'm placing an order*. So pretty!

*If I ever see these in person, I'll update this post.

Images from Verterra. Discovery via Lunar's materials guide.