From the Series
When Indian innovator Narayana Peesapati noticed the amount of plastic cutlery that was being used everyday and how much the waste this caused was harming the world, he decided to do something about it.
In 2010 he began experimenting with cutlery that you could use and then eat and founded Bakey’s. Bakey’s now sells edible spoons of different sizes and chopsticks. The biscuit-like cutlery is made from rice and wheat flours and jowar (sorghum) and will remain crisp for up to 10 minutes even when dipped in soup or water. They can be completely consumed at the end of the meal and if discarded or dropped, they will naturally decompose in less than a week. The cutlery has a shelf-life of three years.
The chief ingredient of the cutlery, jowar, is a crop that Peesapati was researching prior to the foundation of Bakey’s. Growing ground crops like jowar instead of rice helps to maintain safe groundwater levels in rural India, and the Bakey’s products are helping to build a bigger market for jowar.
The Bakey’s manufacturing unit plant is based in Hyderabad and is run entirely by women.
Narayana Peesapati’s inspiring story was first shared on the website The Better India.
