To make it easy for you to learn about us and our products, we have collected the most common questions below. Please CONTACT US if anything remains unanswered!
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Q: Can your wood cutlery be washed and reused?
A: Our wood cutlery is meant to be disposable and recommended for single use only.
Q: What means compostable?
A: Compostable means that a product can break down into natural materials like carbon dioxide, water, and biomass in about 90 days.
Q: Is disposable wood cutlery compostable?
Yes. Wood Cutlery can be composted in a home or backyard compost as well as in a commercial composting facility.
Q: Is compostable better than biodegradable?
A: Although compostable and biodegradable are often used interchangeably, they do not mean the same thing. Biodegradable means that a product can break down into natural materials in the environment without causing harm. The time frame can be months to years. Compostable, on the other hand, means that a product can break down into natural materials in about 90 days.
Q: Is compostable plastic cutlery (PLA's etc) really compostable?
A: There are many different compostable plastics on the market and the answer would be different for each one. The short answer is: what looks like plastic is treated like plastic. Compostable plastics only compost in commercial facilities. Unfortunately, many commercial composters tend to sort out every item that looks like plastic. That means if it looks like plastic, the cutlery will end up in the landfill where it can take hundreds of years to degrade.
Q: Is compostable plastic a better choice than plastic?
A: When confronted with an environmental crisis, there is always a steep learning curve before we get a grip of the problem. Although a step in the right direction, "compostable plastics" do not actually compost in a natural setting. Because they look like plastic they sometimes end up in the recycling bin and recyclers have to sort them out. Because of the same assumption, composters sort them out as well. So, no matter where they get discarded in most cases they will end up in the landfill where they might take the same amount of time to degrade like plastic. If they are still a better option than plastic is up to the consumer, but they are clearly not a truly sustainable alternative to single use plastic.
Q: How long does it take for wood cutlery/plastic cutlery/compostable plastic cutlery to degrade in a landfill?
A: Currently, there is no study that confirms an exact timeframe for wood cutlery to degrade in a landfill. Since landfills are designed for waste to degrade much slower than in a natural setting, it will take longer though, that in your backyard compost!
As a natural product our birch cutlery can be compared to food waste. Food waste is estimated to decompose within 6-24 months in a landfill.
Plastic might take anywhere from 10-100 years in a landfill. So called "compostable plastics" do not easily degrade in a natural setting and it is safe to assume the time for them to degrade in a landfill is closer to that of plastic, than that of wood cutlery.
Q: Why is wood cutlery more sustainable than compostable plastic cutlery?
A: To truely answer this we need to look at a variety of aspects. From the raw materials used over the manufacturing process to what happens after they are discarded. Please read our blog post on How Sustainable Are Plastic Cutlery Alternatives?
Q: Does using wood cutlery harm tree populations?
A: It is a common misunderstanding that wood products harm tree populations. Wood is one of the most sustainable materials that can be used. It absorbs CO2 while it is growing and creates habitats for wildlife. It is important though to only use raw materials from responsibly managed forests like Foodstiks does.
Q: How much wood is needed to make the cutlery?
A: The manufacturing process for our wood cutlery is very efficient. One tree the size of a pole can produce up to 20,000 pieces of cutlery.
Since the world has woken up to the single use plastic crisis out there, and more and more people are looking to lead a zero waste life, grocery stores and take out cafeterias are carrying more and more alternatives to the common plastic fork. Many of these new options are labeled by their manufacturer as compostable and biodegradable. But are they really?
Contact us to discuss your requirements of 6.5'' CPLA Forks. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
Are all utensils labeled compostable really compostable and biodegradable?
The simple answer is NO!
Compostable and many biodegradable plastics are made from naturally occurring polymers such as starch or cellulose. It is at this point confusion is created and compostable/biodegradable plastics misrepresented as "not plastic&#;.
Although a natural polymer is used (e.g. derived from a crop, like corn), the utensils are still man-made in a laboratory via a chemical reaction in the same way as synthetic polymers. As a result the &#;compostable or biodegradable&#; materials they are being marketed as are still, essentially, plastics. In other words: if it looks like and feels like plastic, it is plastic.
So here&#;s the kicker. There is a way to compost these types of utensils - but it&#;s not in your back yard heap at home. It&#;s using a commercial grade composting facility. At these facilities, matter is broken down into very small pieces, then heated at incredibly high temperatures to allow them to biodegrade. It&#;s a very specific process and one we do not have access to at home. In addition, according to a recent study and analysis by Biocycle, the total confirmed number of full-scale food waste composting facilities in the U.S. is only 185. So, statistically speaking, you probably do not live near one.
If products are &#;certified&#; compostable are they really compostable?
Yes and no.
Certified compostable products, in many cases, means they have passed a specific compost test (commonly known as the ASTM D &#; Compostable Product Test).
This test stipulates that to be compostable, matter must compost within a &#;reasonably short period of time&#;. That length - for industrial composting - is 84 days for fragmentation of the product (breaking it into tiny pieces), and 180 days for complete mineralization in a properly managed composting facility.
So, yes, certified compostable products technically do biodegrade, but most are designed only to be composed in commercial grade facilities, and it can take 6- 9 months to occur.
Indeed, if you look at these certified compostable items they often have this disclaimer in very small writing :
&#;Check locally as a commercial composting facility does not exist in many communities - Not suitable for backyard composting.&#;
Several third party tests have been made on those so called compostable products in backyard composts, and after 2 years, the majority of the utensils were still there.
What Happens to Most Compostable Utensils?
Composting is a very specific process which does not occur in landfills. It also does not occur in water. As we mentioned, there are currently only 185 full-scale food waste comparing facilities in the US, compared to 3,092 active landfill dumps.
So, unless when you throw out your &#;compostable&#; utensils they are separated from regular garbage and your specific city is one of the few 5% that has a commercial food waste composting system, your utensils will not compost. Unless, that is, they are simple grain-based utensils such as TwentyFifty ! )
Furthermore, unless it is a natural food based product that dissolves in water, if it ends up in our waterways, it probably will not break down at all.
(The spoon on the left is a current 'compostable' spoon on the market. The spoon - or what's left of it - on the right is TwentyFifty. Both have been in water for 60 days).
This is why if you really want compostable or biodegradable you want to go to twentyfiftyfork.com. Our forks and spoons are made only out of simple, wholesome ingredients: wheat flour, soy flour, corn flour, and water. Because of this, they break down in 30 days or less even in your backyard compost - and even biodegrade in water over time.
To solve our plastic pollution we don&#;t need a few people living a zero waste life perfectly. We need a whole lot of people doing it imperfectly. TwentyFifty is a simple, effective and easy way to start.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website compostable spoon china.