The search for a sustainable spoon (that doesn’t suck)

Disposable cutlery has been undergoing an eco evolution in recent years. Single-use plastic cutlery has been banned in the UK since October 2023 (government research estimated that around four billion single-use items of cutlery were being used every year). The banned list includes petroleum-based plastic and bioplastic, which derives from plant or other biological materials. 

In the UK and EU, your throwaway spoon is now most likely made from paper, wood (probably birch) or something like bagasse (a compostable sugarcane by-product) like those found at London fast-food chain Nusa Kitchen. Bamboo is also favoured because bamboo replenishes so quickly. In terms of biodegradability and renewability, all these materials are preferable to plastic.

When it comes to the quality of the eating experience, however, you will most likely hit a stumbling block. One common complaint about wooden utensils is their “cringey” mouthfeel. The ones from M&S make me shudder. They snap easily too. Utensils made from other materials (including bagasse) fall apart. When Pret a Manger replaced its plastic cutlery with wooden in 2018, the chain faced a major backlash because the spoons were felt to be too shallow to eat soup with. Now its UK stores provide a paperboard version with a deeper well and “pleasant smooth feel” (from Belgian supplier Sabert). But even that makes for a fairly unpleasant eating experience, and how eco-friendly is it, anyway?

Choose to reuse. Carry your own cutlery

According to Pret, the paperboard is sourced from sustainably managed forests and can be recycled along with other paper-based items. But this requires some fairly judicious sorting. At my local Pret, there’s one bin for everything. A spokesperson adds: “While the cutlery is recyclable, its size and weight mean it isn’t always effectively sorted or processed once it reaches [recycling facilities]. That’s why we place a large focus on trying to reduce our environmental impact in other ways, such as by sourcing all of our cutlery from renewable resources.”

End-of-life solutions for cutlery are an ongoing problem. In May 2023, Itsu introduced the world’s first paper spork – a feat of engineering that met the difficulties of pressing a spoon-well in paper that could retain its structure. The pink spork is industrially compostable and recyclable. But despite separate bins for (1) cans, bottles and clean plastic lids, (2) pots, boxes, lids, cups and spoons and (3) everything else, waste from (2), which is sufficiently contaminated to be harder to recycle, and (3) is lumped together and sent to Energy from Waste (EFW) facilities. Better than landfill. But not recycled or composted. Itsu told me spork recycling would begin in select stores this autumn.

US chain Sweetgreen has long pledged that nothing inside its stores goes to landfill. This wasn’t always true. Its cutlery is made from compostable plant-based plastic. In certain markets, municipal composting hasn’t been available. When it is, facilities often refuse bioplastics. Sweetgreen has been exploring “closed-loop” systems for the collection and processing of its compostable waste like those adopted by “zero-waste” festivals and companies like Microsoft.

Perhaps the bigger issue is what happens when cutlery leaves the premises. What are customers meant to do with it? Paper utensils once rinsed should be acceptable in household paper and card recycling but often get separated out because they’re too small and end up in general waste. As for compostable items, I have access to food waste collections via my council. But compostable cutlery isn’t permitted. Bagasse is generally touted as home-compostable but Nusa Kitchen’s spoons are marked for industrial composting only. As are the paper utensils from leading supplier Vegware that have a laminate finish. Not much use to consumers who don’t have access to places that industrially compost. Arguably the most compostable spoon is made from untreated wood. Put in a home compost heap it would behave the same way as twigs.

Suppliers such as Restaurantware and Biofase are developing utensils made from palm leaves and avocado stones. But environmental campaigners argue the answer isn’t more items made from more sustainable materials but a shift away from “throw and go” culture to reuse and return. A ban on dine-in disposable cutlery in France has forced outlets like Pret to adopt reusable metal cutlery, which some see as a blueprint for the future.

“Choose to reuse,” says Natalie Fée, founder of campaign group City to Sea and author of How to Save the World for Free. “Carry your own cutlery. If you’re given a single-use spoon, wash and reuse it a few times and extend its life cycle.” Itsu was ahead of the game in 2019 when it introduced its metal “spoon for life”. Unlike reusable shopping bags, coffee cups or water bottles, the idea didn’t take off. But, five years on, has the time come for the reusable spoon? 

@ajesh34