Biotrem is hoping to expand its offer to edible boxes for takeaway meals and catering. Biotrem distributes the plates in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. But Wysocki says what matters is the tableware is biodegradable. "These aren't huge amounts, but they're enough for us to be optimistic about the future," Wysocki says.Warsaw: Polish inventor and entrepreneur Jerzy Wysocki catches a brown plate, still warm, as it drops out of a machine and he begins to eat the crunchy, fibrous tableware.But "the current price of plastic doesn't factor in the environmental cost, that of recycling and marine pollution," she adds. But he says he is also driven by the desire to help a good cause, "because the amount of rubbish that pollutes oceans is huge and frightening.The Biotrem crew are not the only ones in Poland stepping up to the front line of the war on plastic.The sexagenarian invented the plate some 15 years ago, and today Biotrem makes around 15 million of them a year. In favourable weather conditions, with a little humidity, wheat bran products decompose after a month, or even after two weeks if there is rain. Anyone in the plastic industry can get started "overnight," he enthuses.""To make the plates, we only # use wheat bran, which we compress at a precise pressure point and temperature, using a machine made specifically for that purpose," he explains.

Biodegradable cutleryYou do not have to eat the plate or its packaging to be a friend of the environment."Now, with the measures taken by the EU, even clients who are uninformed about the environment are forced to take an interest in biodegradable products," Then said. Also, it should be possible to harness the same technology to make plates out of corn, barley, oats, cassava and even algae.Eco-conscious clientsBiotrem CEO Malgorzata Then acknowledges, of course, that at 15 euro cents (17 US cents) a pop or 20 percent more for exports, wheat bran plates are more expensive than their plastic counterparts. The research is already at a fairly advanced stage: the only thing left to do is to make the boxes more resistant to liquid and heat. It calls to mind dry cereal flakes or maybe what you would imagine cardboard to taste like. The client Down Under had asked that they check whether earthworms would like the taste, they do."With cassava, the first tests turned out really well and we already have a small group of interested clients," Wysocki adds.A son and grandson of millers, Wysocki got the idea for the tableware when he was looking to use up the leftovers of flour production, which take up a lot of space.. At first, the company targeted clients who were environmentally inclined as well as restaurants and hotels that wanted to offer something original. Taking a bite, the plate does not have much of a flavour

Hide Comments | Add Comment