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."
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about
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