Ever felt bad about the waste your picnic created?  All those paper and plastic plates, cups, and utensils piled up to a big mound of garbage when it’s all over.  If you could eat the bowl your potato salad came in, think of the waste you’d be keeping from the dump!

The strategy of “eat away” as opposed to “throw away” is ideal when taking into consideration the dire state of today’s environment.  A spokesperson from the producer of  Edible Tableware, Rice-design Co Ltd,  says that because disposable tableware is such an incredible waste of resources, using dried bread instead of trees makes a lot of sense.  People can appreciate the resources it takes to make disposable tableware while feeling  good about eating away what would litter the earth.  When it comes to saving the environment the little things add up to a big thing if enough people do it.  Imagine at your next picnic how impressed your friends will be!  

The ingredients of this bread are simply flour, table salt, shortening, and yeast, no eggs or dairy products are used.  They are baked like buns at a bakery so they are just as good as any bread for your meal.  You can be sure that you won’t go hungry with this edible tableware!

These bowls have a light salty flavor and are aromatic as well as tasty.

The bowls can be found at The Edible Tableware Shop  and are sold at a price of 130 yen each, (about $1.60 US) and are sold in sets of ten.  An order of up to five sets can be delivered a week from the day after the date they were ordered.

The edible bowls have a light salty flavor giving them the advantage of going well with any number of foods.    The spokesperson also said that making the bowl not only edible but tasty was an important part of production, otherwise it would simply be thrown away, the very thing they are trying to avoid.  Getting the bowls to bake to the right thickness, and texture so that they wouldn’t break easily or be too absorbent and have good flavor was a matter of repeated trial and error.

Since the bowls started being marketed in 2010, the response has been considerably good both at home and abroad.  They have been taken up by the media in 50 countries outside of Japan for parties and events.  It’s said a French chef once ordered 4000 of them for a dinner with the 14th Dalai Lama!

 

Bowl, plate and chopstick set

 

At present, only the bowl is being marketed.  In reference to other items such as plates and spoons, they could not be marketed due to deficiency in withstanding normal eating utensil usage.  It’s good to know that your bowls will last up to 45 days from purchase.

Why not try these bowls on your next picnic?  A stylish way to show that you care about your environment!  Producers would like to see them eventually used as part of emergency relief efforts. Until then, see how you like eating your bowl with the meal and know you are saving the earth from one less piece of trash!

Source: Excite Bit