When Narayana Peesapaty, an environmental researcher, noticed the plastic cutlery littering his home city of Hyderabad, he sought a solution. The result? Bakey's, a firm making edible spoons from rice, sorghum, wheat flour and water.
Launched in 2011, the spoons didn't sell until a video of the process by positive news site The Better India went viral in August 2015. Within one month, Bakey's took $400,000 (£329,000) worth of orders. It has now has sold five million spoons, which cost £3.50 for a pack of 100. "It took me a while to get people to believe it was possible," says Peesapaty, 50.
Bakey's factory, based 16km from Hyderabad, makes 20,000 spoons a day. The recipe has no fat so spoons stay solid in hot liquid.
Peesapaty wants to make forks and bowls too. "We want to make plastic cutlery obsolete," he says.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
