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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

The problem is what would they switch to? In Japan, they have disposable bamboo forks and spoons, at least I hope it’s bamboo and not wood.

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One company I used to work for went through a saga of finding the best compostable material for disposable cutlery. I think the first attempt was some black plastic thing that melted if you used it to cut an orange. Next was pressed bamboo, which worked but it tasted like wood. Next was a starch based thing that would melt in a cup of tea. I think they finally ended up with some kind of hard brown plastic, but by that time I just had a titanium spork from REI.

So the answer is just bring your own fork and rinse it off when you're done.

Yep, I just have my own utensils at work. Pack my food in a glass container (lid is plastic but reusable).

When I was a kid we used to get ice cream that came with a flat piece of wood to use as a spoon. It was fine.

That's still the standard around here. (Ireland)

Is it plastic in your parts? Plastic spoons always feel way too flimsy to me.

I don't know, they don't give them to me anymore :(

> So the answer is just bring your own fork and rinse it off when you're done.

I mean sure, but this was an international long haul flight. I can actually imagine a 100 people trying to wash their silverware in airport lavatories on a 767 after dinner service.

They supply metal utensils in business class on every long haul flight. There’s nothing stopping them from doing it for coach beyond cost.

As as an added benefit fewer people would waste energy traveling if it were made more expensive by upgrading all seats to business class.

I assume they don’t in economy due to weight, and the reason they provide it in business isn’t related to environmentalism. So we are just exchanging one negative (disposable cutlery)for more of another (more fuel consumption)?

My guess would be speed of service. If everything is disposable you can just chuck it in garbage sack and be done. But having to sort out each customers items when the cutlery can be wherever would take too long.

Ya, that makes sense. But more work would mean more employees which would also have a (monetary and carbon) cost.

I wouldn't have guessed that bamboo has a strong taste. I've used other wooden cutlery before and it doesn't really affect the taste of food at all.

I think it was more of a dry feeling on the tongue and palate than an actual flavor, kind of like a tongue depressor. At any rate, it was a weird experience for someone who grew up using stainless steel.

I suspect there’s some differentiator going on behind the scenes. I remember those wooden paddle “spoons” having a distinctive wooden flavour, and there was some fast food chain that brought wooden spoons a couple years ago: the first ones were obnoxiously “wood tasting” but the current ones seem to have no flavour at all.

Note: none of these were bamboo, they were all some type of lighter tree wood

Edit: if you’re not sure on the taste we’re talking about, chew on a wooden toothpick until it goes a bit soggy: same flavour.

Bamboo is used too, but AFAIK well over half of disposable chopsticks are made from softwood (birch, aspen, etc).

I have heard a Japanese person comment on the large quantity of disposable "wood" stuff in Japan, but I have no idea whether they were including bamboo as "wood".

It is considered wood and used as such.

Bamboo is a bit more environmental than wood (it grows easier and faster). Only 10% of disposable chopsticks in Japan are made of bamboo rather than wood, however. Not sure about forks and knives that were plastic before.

Some bamboos grow a meter a day. It's also a good way to bioremediate nitrogen pollution, they should really do that in places like The Netherlands where excess nitrogen from livestock has become an issue, but I don't know if the weather is compatible with bamboo. Some grasses that can be used for paper-making could also be an option.

Yeah, those are all great benefits. It grows SO fast and with model lamination/bonding it makes a great material.

We switch away from disposable things in general

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