Disposable plates used to be a standard of the season. But it's becoming increasingly common to use permanent dishware, biodegradables, recyclables, and even compostables. One such compostable dish is made of pressed dried Areca palm leaves...
It's a traditional technique taken from rural households in India. The process makes these beautiful, natural pieces that are fully compostable. Using this process, each beautiful plate is unique - an aesthetic and green-factor that sure beats blue plastic Dixie!
Some palm leaf dish makers: British Columbia's Earthen, Scotland's Bio Bags, and NYC's VerTerra.
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Comments (7)
This material would look like it would make a great pot, planter or even small outdoor furniture.
Reminds me of the good old days back home when we used to eat out of banana leaves and carry home liquids in small cups made out of palm leaves. In India, we were green out of necessity, as we are so many and our resources limited.
Now we too have adopted the disposable culture but we dont have the resources to dispose safely and neither do we have laws to ensure the same.
We are destroying our environment faster.....
Great material but I find the plates rather unattractive for eating food off of - they look dirty:)
They don't look dirty to me. In fact, the look nicer than my food. I'm more a gourmand than a gourmet: take whatever's in the fridge, toss it into a blender and voila! Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served.
A friend of mine ordered these for his wedding reception, and they are beautiful with a satisfying texture and VERY sturdy. They don't look "dirty" at all. The plates they used were a light cream color with very slight color variations that definitely looked like part of the leaf ... not dirt. They also had a great, high lip on them. I loved them just for the looks. When I found out how green they were, I was hooked!
After looking at the links, I am pretty sure they used the BioBag brand. Speaking of BioBags, has anyone used these?
I saw some compostable bamboo utensils a while back too at Zabars in NYC.