Sustainable Living: Company Transforms Avocado Pits Into Biodegradable Cutlery!
Avocados are one of the most popular fruits of 2020, with the seemingly unending fame of meals like the avocado toast and avocado veggie salad. However, a company has found a unique use for avocados by making biodegradable cutlery out of the pits. The products feel as strong as plastic and are very affordable too!
However, some of the negative effects of the trendy avocado meals are a shortage of water supplies and the fruits where they are locally grown but exported. Thus, the ever-increasing importance of initiatives that limit the wastage of food in this case, avocados.
This was one of the primary goals of Biofase, a Mexico-based company, when it started the construction of single-use cutlery and straws out of bioplastics made from discarded avocado pits.
Via the brand's website, they relay that their creations can biodegrade without commercial facilities that some other biodegradable products require. The products feel as strong as plastic and come at a price that helps achieve aims of making biodegradable plastic "sustainable and affordable for everyone"!
The company primarily sources for the avocado pits from guacamole and oil manufacturers that may have dumped avocado seeds into a landfill. The seeds are then converted into a biopolymer material known as "avoplast" through a patented process.
The avoplast is then used to produce cutleries like forks, knives, spoons, and straws. The biodegradable products can be divided into those that biodegrade within 240 days, and other types that are compostable, needing to be placed in a compost heap to break down completely.
So far, Biofase's initiative has enjoyed success by achieving the crucial goals of minimizing wastage of the avocado pits — about 130 tons of avocado seeds are used each month!
The company especially expresses great pride in promoting sustainable living in Mexico, where all biodegradable plastic products formerly had to be imported from other countries for use. Now, Biofase has reached past the boundaries of the country having launched branches in 11 other countries in Latin America.
Global warming remains a significant problem, so it can only be hoped that, like Biofase, the general public and organizations rise to the task of eradicating its causes.
Image credits: facebook.com/biofasemexico/
