Moscardino Spork
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA 
on 07.26.05
We've covered biodegradable place settings and disposable dinnerware previously, but we've never seen anything like the Moscardino spork designed by Giulio Iacchetti and Matteo Ragni (see their Italian site here). Produced by Pandora Design in Italy, this sexy little spork was awarded the pretigious Italian Compasso d'Oro in 2001. They're small enough for easy use by children and grand for picnics and brown bag lunches. The sporks are made of Mater-Bi, a completely biodegradable starch-based plastic, which stands up to repeated use and prolonged contact with liquids, achieving 90 percent degradation in about 50 days under normal aerobic composting conditions. Thus, the spork helps conserve our increasingly finite petroleum resources, reduces greenhouse emissions (the plants grown to produce starch use carbon dioxide from the air to produce oxygen by photosynthesis. When the plastic from the starch decays, carbon dioxide is released, but this is equivalent to the amount the plant used up originally, so the net gain of carbon dioxide is zero.) and creates no waste and no long-term disposal problem. Mater-Bi is produced by annother Italian company, Novamont, which has won world-wide acclaim for its research and innovation in waste disposal methods.
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Sexy, maybe, but thoroughly lacking in function. So you hold onto the tines of the fork to use the spoon, and then hold onto the bowl of the spoon to use the fork? And, if you're eating something that requires the use of the fork and spoon functions, you're can't avoid putting your hands on a dirty, food-covered end of the utensil.
Too clever by half... why didn't they just use the original (superior) spork design with the new material?
In canada when I grew up, Spork was a Spam-like meat product served on camping trips, except even more disgusting. Just hearing the word makes me retch.
I understand the who biodegradable thing where "the net gain of carbon dioxide is zero". But what if it (or any similar product) was disposed of in a fire. Yes, I know burning garbage is frowned upon by many, but say we where using sporks around the campfire and a few people threw there's in the fire when finished with the meal. Does the pollution ratio (or whatever you call it) remain zero? Just curious really.
Perfect -- provided you don't mind whatever you used the fork part on getting all over your hands as you use the spoon part, and vice versa.
[on using the dirty end] Well, you could just use 2 for each meal, thereby having 2 clean ends for grasping. It'd still be better than "just using a fork and spoon" since you take advantage of modular components
I think it is a great idea! Just handle the utensil at the fulcrum... on a lighter note... SPAM (the food) is good!
Regarding burning your starchy sporks- it doesn't matter by what means the atoms get rearranged; there's only so much carbon and hydrogen in there, and however you oxidize it, you'll get CO2 and H2O.
The problem with burning stuff like that in an uncontrolled manner (in your campfire, for example) is you also get these crazy half-reduced molecules that form as the complex hydrocarbons break down quickly and don't get all the way to the base components, because they're not as inert as CO2 and water they tend to attack things. This is why it's not a good idea to huff the fumes from burning plastic, although if you can burn the same plastic in a controlled reactor in the presence of plenty of oxygen you should get complete combustion and the resultant of the combustion should be harmless.
So yes, your 'pollution ratio' of CO2 is constant since the manufacturing process is closed-loop (plant to product to plant), but you may be making other things in the process which are not so nice.
I like the new spork. I find the current spork that is being dispensed in Taco Bells around the nation is neither a good fork nor spoon. The new Spork 2.0, while lacking the ability to use both functions at once, allows the user to have a decent fork and/or spoon separately. I can, however, see the possible sanitation risks of using a single Spork 2.0 for both a bowl of rice and chicken soup. This problem can be easily remedied with the addition of two Spork 2.0s to ones lunch. I wonder when I can buy some...
Yes, you could (carefully) grab it by the part in the middle and have two clean ends to use. What they really need to do is insert a longer, thumb-pad shaped gripping surface in the middle. Then the spork would truly be perfect. Oh crap, I just gave away a million dollar idea.
Perhaps the Spork could include a sachet containing an equally biodegradable napkin. The sachet could have a small external sleeve which slips neatly over the spoon end while eating rice and could then be transferred to the fork end when the soup arrives. Following the meal, the sachet could be removed, opened, mouth and hands wiped and the whole lot could be thrown in the fire together.
it would be nice to get a reusable bamboo or wooden one, i don't mind if my hands get a bit dirty and if they where really reusable then i wouldn't feel guilty using two of them with a meal.