The Oddyssey

Poornima 26 January 2010 Creative Writing, Sustainable living No Comment

Idea
a lot of people are excited about corn and other “plant- based” packaging without realizing that some of them are only compostable in commercial sites (of which there are very few) and that many end up in landfills. The wide spread misnomer that these utensils are “easily biodegradable” is also fueling the “use and throw” culture, that creates excessive waste. Worse, it is driving food prices UP, since it uses edible plants like corn, soy, rice, potato starch etc.

I am keen on starting a pilot project -on campus at first – to combat this “disposable psyche” by promoting reusable utensils. We also want to see whether we can make it “economically viable” to make our dining halls and eateries adopt “non-edible” plant based / home compostable containers. (I have looked at some like hay, Bagasse/ sugar cane, areconut etc..)

Did you know?

• Americans throw out plastic folks, knives and spoons each year enough to circile the equator about 300 times.

• The average time that people use a utensil before they throw it away is about 3 minutes

Objectives
1)  Provide an economic incentive for food outlets to use “non-edible” plant based / home compostable containers
2) Change the “Use once & THROW” culture

How can we achieve this? – The “Method” in this madness explained!…
1) Changing attitudes - Launch the “reduce your folkprint” campaign
Organize a group of 6-10 volunteers to give up their “use and throw utensils and plates” habit for a week. Provide each with a set of different types of reusable/ compostable utensil sets made of non-edible plant products.
Follow them  for a week around campus as they try it out at different dining halls/ restaurants and make mini video clip that capture how this changes their “eating experience”. The clips can also be used to promote this behaviour. (This process will also help us understand the limitations of different types of material and already existing products. It can also be done by or equipping each person with a flip cam)
We also capture the reaction of their friends to this changing behaviour. These mini clips will be published on a vlog.
- Also create mini videos showing what happens to your corn/ other “non-composting” utensils at Stanford after you throw them.
- use creative student organisations like a “stanford comedy club” and the “one-word group – a performance poetry group” to create creative content to promote this behavioural change
- promote these three blips through youtube/ facebook and twitter

2) creating economic incentives for food outlets
After the first 7 days of vlogging and attempting to create a social awareness around the idea, we want to organise a “carrot mob” where we attempt to gather 50-70 people to come to one dining area and bring along their reusable utensils and purchase food. This would slowly help to change the attitudes of the food outlets owners. depending on the success – we plan to organize one such event per week.

3) At the same time we would run a survey to understand how much is spent on utensils and waste disposal and whether this method could help to reduce those costs.

4) Encourage shop owners to switch from using edible plant based containers to ones made from non-edible plant material that composts in a home composting facility – we can also organise a carrot mob around this.

3) We also want to do a survey of currently available non-edible plant based material that can be used to create containers with some of the following characteristics.

• Impermeable / Leak-Resistant,
• Non-toxic, Compostable (at home – not in commercial composting site),
• Reusable
• Microwavable
• Freezer safe
• Cut resistant
• Stackable – for shops/ restaurants
• Dishwasher-safe

Metrics for measuring success

• the number of people who will attend the carrot mobs
• the number of people who will start carrying their reusable utensils (and making a pledge on our vlog to do so)
• the number of eating outlets who start exploring the use of utensils and containers made from non-edible/ compostable material
• The cost savings on utensils for the participating eating outlets.