Pursuing the goal of reducing litter left by café visitors taking food to go, tourism officials and shop operators in Kyoto are trialing an initiative using edible spoons, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
Three dessert restaurants in Kyoto’s Arashiyama district — popular with tourists — serve their meals with edible spoons as part of the trial. The spoons are branded «Pacoon,» after the Japanese onomatopoeia for eating and biting, and are available in five flavors, made from flour, sugar, eggs and vegetable powders.
Reportedly, customers have responded positively to the idea, and the amount of garbage outside one of the cafés has reportedly decreased during the pilot program. However, the edible spoons cost 76 yen ($0.48), whereas regular biomass spoons are priced at only 1 yen, making it difficult to scale the initiative and raising concerns for entrepreneurs about increasing consumer prices. Currently, half of the expenses are subsidized by the city authorities.
Over the summer, officials tested edible spoons, straws, and plates, but some proved impractical — plates were too substantial — so spoons were chosen for the trial.
