https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/knork/knork-eco-dishwasher-safe-compostable-plant-based
As someone who does his fair share of takeout, perhaps the one thing I hate with a vengeance is the flimsy, horribly designed plastic cutlery I get with my food. The spoons sometimes come with these plastic flares that get left behind from the cheap injection molding process, the knives are more flexible than the food I’m cutting, and the forks don’t possess enough structural integrity to pierce my food. All that’s aside from the fact that this cutlery eventually reaches either a landfill or the ocean by the tonne, not having served any purpose whatsoever. The sad reality is that we’re far from democratizing a solution that actually works… but with projects like the Knork Eco, we’re getting a few steps closer to conscientiously designing single-use (or even multiple-use) plastic cutlery that has little to no impact on the environment.
The Knork Eco has a pretty transparent objective. To A. remove non-biodegradable single-use plastics from our life-cycle, and to B. replace them with cutlery that’s eco-friendly, biodegradable, and more importantly, much more robust and comfortable to use than those horrible disposable forks and spoons. The Knorks are made from a specialized material called Astrik, which combines sugarcane starch along with bamboo fibers. The result is a moldable polymer that’s sturdy, looks and feels like glossy plastic, is food-safe, dishwasher safe, and can biodegrade in 2 years. Most importantly, sugarcane and bamboo are two of the fastest growing plants in the world, allowing Astrik as a material to cater to the incredibly high demand of disposable cutlery without any hassle.
The Knork Eco is a spoon+fork set made from Astrik. It looks and feels exactly like plastic, and can do everything plastic can. The Knork cutlery comes in its own chic case made from the bamboo-polymer too, allowing you to easily carry it around with you wherever you go, because the Knorks are much more reliable and robust than most plastic spoons and forks. They come with a larger cross-section, making them thicker and stiffer, and even integrate a broader handle with a finger-rest, allowing you to use them with the dexterity of metal cutlery.
The Knorks can cleaned either manually or in a dishwasher, and can be infinitely reused until you dispose them. When introduced to the soil, the Astrik material biodegrades completely in just 2 years, turning into compost that can then be used to grow more plants, making it perhaps the best example of nature-conscious cradle-to-grave designing with zero negative impact. Yes I said it, we should have been using this bamboo-based cutlery all along!
Designer: KNORK Flatware
Click Here to Buy Now: $15 $30 (50% off).
The KNORK Eco is a plant-based bamboo utensils that are dishwasher safe, compost in 2 years, and sustainably made. Genius design meets epic functionality.
KNORK Eco uses Astrik: Made from PLA (poly lactic acid – sugar cane starch 90%) and bamboo fiber (10%), this eco-friendly and responsibly sourced material provides a workable, multi-functional + sustainable alternative to harmful one-use plastic utensils.
The designers have thinned and improved the tines, and added a platform right where your index finger typically rests when doing the aforementioned side-tipping action. These help the user to rock through and cut most foods without reaching for a knife, and the contoured handle fits comfortably in most hands and creates an ergonomic balance.
Eco pieces will fit many specific niche market opportunities where the functionality encourages creative freedom for chefs in environments where use of a knife isn’t feasible.
The combination of clever design and a dishwasher-safe, durable, and 2 year compost-able material was exactly what we had been looking for, and the Eco line was born.
If you love food and eating as much as we do, you’ll totally get that the one constant of American style eating is the natural born habit of people to tip forks on their sides to cut through foods that it’s not necessarily normal to reach for a knife to eat. Think waffles, pancakes, chicken, burritos, coney dogs, etc.
KNORK is perfect for multi-tasking, on the go eating-think desk lunches or cocktail parties where the ultimate challenge is to hold your drink in one hand while trying to eat with the other.
The stainless steel fork and spoon that fit into the new carrying case will feature a limited edition “Eco” stamp, so you know just which pieces to reach for when packing your lunch!
Click Here to Buy Now: $15 $30 (50% off). Hurry, less than 72 hours left!
