Degradable Eating Utensils Made From Corn, Sugar

Tag: Plasticware SEBRING — Nanette Hommerding was surprised to learn that the spoon and container her daughter was eating ice cream from were made with corn.Three -year-old Sophia Faber didn't know she was helping the environment by decreasing the impact on landfills, as she ate a bowl of wild orange ice cream at the Hammock Inn in Highlands Hammock State Park on Friday.By introducing renewable cutlery, plates, bags, containers and even drinking straws, Hammock Inn restaurant owner/operator Nancy Davis went "Green" – just in time for Saturday's Earth Day celebration at the state park.The plasticware is 100 percent biodegradable, made from corn, and is nearly identical to conventional plasticware, with no taste difference.In as little as 100 days, spoons, forks and knives biodegrade into compost and then eventaullyturn into black, rich soil. Extracted sugar cane fiber for cups and bowls composts in 45 days or less.Each week the restaurant regularly produces 18-48 gallon bags that are destined for the dump."Just to know that I'm not contributing to piles and piles of garbage," said Davis about the change. "In good conscience, I couldn't continue to cart that amount of garbage out of here. I'm not filling the landfill up with junk."Until Thursday, the restaurant used 100 percent disposable products made from previously traditional recycled materials.Rather than continuing to use products made by trees that mature within 30 years, but still fill landfills, sugar cane takes 90 days to mature, while corn takes only a year to reach maturity. Raw stalk pulp is extracted from sugar cane stalks, which are typically burned."We still used trees or paper," said Davis. "It was not an environmentally efficient way to go."Davis said she is most excited to introduce "Bio Bags" to the inventory at the Hammock Inn. These plastic bags were produced by Eco-Products, which distributes the full line of eating utensils and packaging used at the park.These cutting edge technology bags are nearly identical to those distributed in supermarkets and department stores. If corn-made plastic products replaced those petroleum produced bags, there would be few bags blowing across roadways or stuck to fences, said Davis.Davis noted that this year's Earth Day slogan is "Earth Day is Every Day.""It's not just one day a year that you do something," she said.Most of the new, biodegradable packaging and utensils products cost 50 to 100 percent more than recylables, though Davis is not passing on the cost to diners."If I can do it on a business level, I'm hoping that people might get the idea that they can do something to make less impact on the environment," said the restaurateur about business owners and residents.