Wooden Cutlery vs Plastic Cutlery: Why You Should Change

If you are passionate about the health of the environment, you may be looking for ways you can make lifestyle changes to reduce personal waste.

Some changes are on a larger scale and require a lot of deliberation and planning, such as going vegan or exploring alternative travel methods to reduce gas emissions. However, there are many small changes you can incorporate into your routine that can drastically reduce your waste output over time. One of the changes is to ditch plastic cutlery in favor of reusable wooden cutlery.

According to the World Economic Forum, around 40 billion pieces of plastic utensils are used and discarded each year - a figure in the United States alone. Because they are so small and almost always contaminated with food waste, plastic utensils cannot be recycled, so they end up in landfills or the ocean, damaging plant and animal life in the water and on land.

Even before plastic cutlery is thrown away, it can pose a health risk to consumers. Most people are very familiar with single-use plastics - they're used in single-use water and soft drink bottles, as takeout containers in restaurants, and even as packaging for food storage in our own homes. What most people don't know, however, is that these everyday items are made with harmful bioactive chemicals like BPA.

BPA is known to interfere with the production and regulation of hormones in the body. It mimics estrogen, blocks the function of testosterone, and disrupts the thyroid's hormone pathways. Since most people today are exposed to such chemicals from multiple angles, determining their exact effects can be challenging. However, there is evidence that BPA can disrupt the endocrine system, increasing a person's risk of diabetes, obesity, and reproductive health, and stunting.

Another chemical commonly found in single-use plastics is BPS, which is very similar in structure to BPA but primarily affects aquatic animals. That means the millions of plastic utensils and other items handled every day can cause serious damage to the health of marine life, not to mention the damage they do to fragile ecosystems.

You may be wondering, how can plastic packaging companies be allowed to include these chemicals in their products? Due to the lack of comprehensive scientific research on their effects, the FDA has a surprisingly long list of chemicals that fall into the "GRAS" or are generally regarded as a safe category. Therefore, the task of avoiding these chemicals largely falls on consumers.

The good news: As a consumer, you have a lot of power in your choices, and single-use plastics, especially single-use cutlery, are very easy to avoid with the right substitutes and a little planning. Luckily, there are options for reusable, durable cutlery that you can take with you just as you would a metal water bottle or ceramic coffee mug.

Greenwood offers disposable fork, knife, spoon, and chopstick sets made from birch wood. The set comes with a handy paper pouch carry bag to keep any cutlery from getting lost in your bag or car and keep it clean before meals. Unlike some other materials, birch doesn't conduct heat or react to acidity in food, another added bonus of bringing your own reusable wooden cutlery set. Throw in a reusable glass straw and you'll have everything you need for lunch at work, picnic, camping, or anywhere away from home.

In the debate over single-use wooden cutlery versus plastic, choosing the former has many advantages and the latter has few. The main reason for making plastic utensils and other supplies is convenience. However, with its compact size, easy storage, and minimal maintenance and cleaning needs, wooden cutlery can hardly be described as inconvenient and has so much to offer in supporting sustainable industries, reducing plastic use, and reducing exposure to harmful chemicals benefits of.

With just one change to your routine, you can save hundreds or even thousands of plastic forks, knives, and spoons before they end up in landfills or harm our marine animals and ecosystems. You can also avoid exposure to unsafe chemicals like BPA. By switching to single-use wooden cutlery, you'll be making sustainable healthy choices for your body and the planet. If you want to buy disposable wooden tableware, please contact us.

Greenwood is a professional custom disposable wooden tableware manufacturer. Greenwood not only provides customers with a full range of wooden tableware procurement solutions from single product design customization to multi-category matching but also helps customers quickly complete tableware replacement under the rules of "plastic restriction" and "plastic ban". Greenwood currently has a market share of about 35% in disposable wooden tableware, with an annual supply of 3 billion pieces, with Europe and China accounting for 85% of total sales. The establishment of the European sales center allows Greenwood to be closer to customer needs and to solve customer needs faster.