The Wholeleaf Co. Palm Leaf Plates Eco Product Review

We’ve tested different disposable plates on Life Goggles before - the ones made from potatos which Kev looked at and ones made from sal and siali leaves that I looked at. So when I was given some made from the Areca palm tree I jumped at the chance to test them.

Made by the Wholeleaf Company, the plates are made in southern India from leaves that have naturally fallen to the ground. Usually these sheaths are burned, fed to animals or composted. The Wholeleaf Co turn them into plates and bowls by soaking the leaves in local spring water, and hot stamping them with a mould by hand to make the plate and then cutting away the rough edges. The heat also sterilises the plates. And that’s it. They are produced by marginalise rural people and claim that if all the fallen leaves were used in this way they would employ 300,000 people!

But how do they work? Very well is the answer. I would have thought being made out of wood that some juice of my dinner would seep through but no, they’re well sealed and not even that easy to cut with a normal knife.

As you can see from the picture they’re strong too, although maybe if I’d had another orange I may have caused a problem, but they’d be perfect for a barbeque or a buffet where holding the plate with one hand is needed. Also you can see how different each one looks, I think that’s part of the charm.

Although they’re a disposable product - just put them on the compost heap when you’re finished - I did try and wash one. A quick wipe and you can use them again, but soak one and it loses shape.

The Wholeleaf Co. supplied the BBC Good Food Show this year and have a huge range of products - bowls, dishes, plates and so on, take a look at the website for more details. Or go to Nigel’s Eco Store where they’re £11.75 for a set of 25 plates, they have bowls too.

All Disposable Products Should Be Like This!

We review a lot of great alternatives to “traditional” products, ones that are just as good (or better), sometimes costing around the same, and we often come to the conclusion - why do we still use the popular versions?

Disposable cutlery and containers are products that are difficult to avoid. There are times when reusable cutlery is not practical or allowed (i.e airplanes) and while remembering to take your own containers to takeaway places (or even restaurants for left-overs) is an admirable goal, it’s not one that we’re all likely to achieve any time soon.

To that end, Dispoz-o have sponsored a review of their latest environmentally conscious products - enviroware biodegradable cutlery, straws, hinged containers, plates and bowls.

About Dispoz-o

Creating a biodegradable product with the same characteristics as non-biodegradable plastics seems like a great achievement to me. Beginning their “greening” in 1999, Dispoz-o began with using recycled materials, water reclamation, energy saving systems, and many other initiatives in their factories following the 3Rs of Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. But this wasn’t enough; they partnered with MIT to create “envirofoam” dinnerware in order to reduce their environmental footprint. Then, in 2005, they began their quest to make their disposable plastic products out of biodegradable material, which would be realized in 2008.

Biodegradable Cutlery and Plates

There are several different ways to achieve this goal, each with their pros and cons, and it took over two years for them to discover their final method - Active Organic Catalyst (AOC). The AOC agents act as a stimulus for micro-organisms to produce an enzyme that breaks up the molecular chain into much smaller structures. Once this is done, the micro-organisms can then metabolize these structures into organic material. Enviroware is FDA approved and meets lots of acronym standards that you can look up on their website.

Depending on how active a landfill is the products will degrade in as little as 9 months and up to five years, compared to a typical estimated 400 years with current plastics and traditional food containers. They break down completely into carbon dioxide, water and methane and leave no toxic residue.

Yes, it’s still plastic

The products are either polypropylene or polystyrene plastic (made from petroleum), but coupled with AOC their products are now 100% biodegradable. It is better to avoid using plastic at all but there are times when you can’t avoid it, and there are some people and companies who don’t care about avoiding plastic. I’m all about making things easier for people and taking small steps towards being green, so using green products that look the same and function the same as traditional non-green products is a great move. I’ve tried many of them out personally and you can’t notice the difference at all with enviroware.

Enviroware make 100% biodegradable single use products including plates, bowls, hinged take-out containers, school lunch trays, cutlery, cutlery kits, straws and stirrers. If you’re a business who uses the non-biodegradable versions of these products and aren’t about to, or able to change anytime soon, then take a look a Dispoz-o enviroware. Houston Independent School District have just announced their move to biodegradable products.