How many times have you been stumped about what to do with your plastic cutlery after a meal out? You don’t want to throw it in the bin because it will either end up in landfill for hundreds of years or be incinerated to generate a fraction of the energy that went into its production.You could take it home with you to recycle, or even keep it for a second use, but the chances are you will have sat on it on the way home and will be doomed to an eternity of removing morsels of plastic too-small-to-recycle from your bag and the worldly possessions held within. If only you could eat the darned things and get rid of them…Fret no more, for an Indian Start-up company, Bakey’s, is now manufacturing plant-based, fully edible cutlery in response to the environmental problems associated with single-use plastic cutlery. Made with Millet and small amounts of Rice and Wheat, Edible Cutlery comes in a variety of flavours, such as Carrot-Beetroot to tuck in to your soup or Ginger-Cinnamon to scoop up some rice pudding.If you do happen to fill up on your meal, however, they biodegrade within a very short period. When stored in the right conditions, they can also have a shelf life of three years, so they could theoretically be shipped to Irish businesses. But would it be financially viable?The founder of Edible Cutlery, Narayana Peesapathy, believes that his product can boost the market for Millet, driving down his production costs to make the spoons cost-competitive with their plastic counterparts. In the process, this would encourage farmers to move away from water and methane-intensive crops such as rice, to lower impact alternatives. Referencing the fact that growing rice requires 60 times more water than millet, it is clear why the spoons are primarily made of millet.Peesapathy has previously worked as a groundwater researcher, lending credibility to the eco credentials of the operation, and going some way towards explaining why the life-cycle of the product is as environmentally sustainable as possible. Given the fantastic economic, social and environmental benefits of this product, only one question remains: How much longer will we be spoon-fed the idea that environmentally beneficial can’t be economically viable?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-2WiqOtlqg