Asia Times Online
www.atimes.com
by Raja M

MUMBAI - Entrepreneur Narayana Peesapaty has the solution to the problem of billions of pieces of disposable plastic cutlery being discarded in India: he makes them edible. So after people have eaten their soup, they can chew and swallow the spoon.

Part of the New Ventures Global initiative to encourage environmentally friendly business ideas in developing countries, New Ventures India (partnered by the Confederation of Indian Industries, or CII) received a range of products, including knives and chopsticks that can be chewed and digested instead of being reused or discarded.

These young companies approached New Ventures India at the Hyderabad-based CII-Godrej Green Business Center, a joint initiative of the state government of Andhra Pradesh, the CII, the Apex Industry Association, industrial house Godrej, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The CII-Godrej Green Business Center aims to make India a global leader in green businesses by 2015.

Founded by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the Washington-based New Ventures also has centers in China, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico.

If Peesapaty's edible cutlery, which is made from sorghum flour, takes off, he plans to develop edible wrappers for sandwiches and hamburgers.

"This is the first time such edible cutlery [has been] available in the world," Peesapaty, 40, told Asia Times Online. "Many research [programs], including one by the US Army in 2001, have worked on environmental-friendly cutlery, but no one has yet made them edible until now."

His cutlery comes in two flavors, sweet or namkeen (salted, spicy deep-fried Indian snacks), and he says he has developed vegetable dyes to make the cutlery in different colors.

The edible-cutlery idea itself isn't new, but Peesapaty could be the first to generate interest among major industrial bodies. In an October 2002 posting on the Halfbakery.com website, "PotatoPete" proclaimed that he was "working on disposable cutlery in order to create less washing up. Plates made from baked dough, cups made from rice paper, knives and forks from crusty bread. The theory is that if you don't like the meal, eat the cutlery ..." Peesapaty's idea is that if you don't like meals causing pollution, eat the cutlery.

Responses to "PotatoPete" included reminders that edible swizzle-sticks were available in the United Kingdom and some Chinese-food vendors serve soup in edible or biodegradable bowls.

A USA Today article last December also reported how diners at Chef Homaro Cantu's Moto restaurant in Chicago order from the menu and can then eat it, as it is made of Parmesan-flavored rice paper, imprinted with edible soy ink.

Peesapaty's company, BK Environmental Innovations Pvt Ltd, based in the southern Indian city of Hyberabad, plans to sell a packet of 50 edible spoons for about US$1.50. Peesapaty says he has received queries from the Indian railways and major corporations such as ITC. Peesapaty estimates that the plastic-cutlery market in India is now worth about $220 million. He needs a $200,000 investment, but is opting for a bank loan instead of investors, who he says want majority control of his company.

New Ventures reflects the increasing realization by businesses that they must work in harmony with the environment.

A UK government-commissioned study, carried out by British treasury economist and former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern, says environmental damage could shrink the world economy by 20%, at a cost of up to $7.046 trillion).

The report, released in London on October 30, is considered the first major study on global warming by an economist rather than a scientist. The study also warns that floods and droughts caused by global warming would make about 200 million people refugees in their own countries, and would create the worst global recession ever seen.

Another report, "Ecosystem Challenges and Business Implications", published this month by Earthwatch Institute (Europe), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and the WRI, says companies either have to change their business models and operations or suffer major losses from the degradation of ecosystems on which their businesses depend.

The report, based on interviews with business leaders, observes: "Many companies recognize the risks associated with degrading ecosystems and are trying to adapt accordingly, but most fail to associate healthy ecosystems with their business interests. A collective business response is therefore needed to address the scale of environmental change currently taking place."

Another company in the New Ventures India short list, Bangalore-based HMX Sumaya Systems, wants a $1 million investment to market innovative, environmentally friendly air-conditioners. The company's most successful product, the Ambiator, is a cost-effective, eco-friendly alternative to a conventional air-conditioner, looks similar to one and has a potentially huge market. The Consumer Electronics and TV Manufacturers Association conservatively estimates that Indian companies sold 2 million air-conditioners in 2005, a number expected to increase to 10.3 million by 2015.

Another company, ABT Bioproducts, offers innovative organic-farming products. CleanStar Energy designs and markets commercially viable environment-friendly systems to produce energy in rural India by growing non-edible plants and trees on marginal lands and processing this material as substitutes for diesel and coal. DESI (Decentralized Energy Systems India) Power partners villagers to set up power plants and energy services in their communities.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and WBCSD president Bjorn Stigson pointed out: "Business simply cannot function if ecosystems and the services they deliver - like water, biodiversity, food, fiber and climate regulation - are degraded or out of balance. There must be a value attached to natural resources, and businesses need to start understanding this value."