Chewing Gum Goes Organic and Biodegradable
by Bonnie Alter, London 
on 01. 5.09
Chewing gum has long been the bane of teachers and street cleaners...and the love of dentists. Made of synthetic chicle, sugar and flavouring it causes cavities, and sticks to the pavement--costing millions in street cleaning.
Now a small co-operative in the Mexican rainforest is bringing back the original chicle processing skills to make a chewing gun that is certified organic and saving the rainforest. Called Chicza Rainforest Gum, it will be sold in supermarkets in Britain very soon.
photo from Mexicolore
The chicle industry almost died out after the development of synthetic chicle in the 1950's. The co-operative, located on the edge of a rainforest reserve, has developed this sustainable and organic gum as a way to revive the industry and the skills. The chicleros, as they are called, preserve the rainforest whilst getting the white sap from the trees. As they say: "We don't kill the trees like farmers do when they clear land to grow corn or graze cattle. We leave a wound, it's true, but eight years after it is healed and producing chicle again."
The other bonus is that the gum is biodegradable and starts to break down right after chewing. UK councils spend more than £150 million a year on cleaning streets so this is a big plus. Since 28m people chew gum every year in Britain, buying almost 1bn packs a year, this could be a great boon for Chicza....too bad about the dentists.
Some gummy facts:
- Wrigley and Cadbury Schweppes account for 60 per cent of the world market in chewing gum
- Every year, 935 million packs of gum are chewed by 28 million Britons
- A packet of Wrigley's gum was the first item to be scanned by a barcode reader
- It is illegal to import chewing gum into Singapore. Guardian
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It will sure be nice to find gum without aspartame in it!
This article implies chewing gum made of sustainably harvested chicle is new.
I'm holding in my hand a box of "Glee" Gum, a chewing gum made from rain forest chicle that has been on the market for some time.
It might be good to do a little market research first next time.
This is a great idea...btw,this article never said that they were the first to do this.
It bugs me to see people picking on TreeHugger all the time about spotty research:if you feel like you could do better,than write your own blog,or quietly point out the mistakes to the person who wrote it.
Nobodies perfect.:)
I prefer hard-to-biodegrade gum, as after chewing I keep it in an accumulating ball stuck to my wall and when needed use it to caulk my roof holes. Weight for weight, chewing gum is cheaper than sealant here in the Philippines.
II also use it to seal the fittings in my home septic tank biogas line. I just caulk the joints then reinforce it by winding some string through the caulk bead. So far it has lasted 7 years.
As Anonymous previously mentioned, Glee gum is even sold on Amazon.com - $13.33 for a 12-count box, each package containing 18-pieces. Quite ironically, I've already got one coming my way tomorrow or the next via UPS.
Like Recyclican and Anonymous said Glee Gum has been on the market for a while now. Alternative Channel TV ( meaning "I") did an interview with the owner of this sustainably harvested chicle based gum a few months ago.
Read the interview here:
Glee Gum interview