Edible Picks: Patra Eco-Dinnerware

Imagine the daunting stacks of dirty ceramic dishes waiting to be washed after a home-cooked meal. What if I told you that after dinner chores are soon to be a thing of the past? In fact, Patra Eco-Dinnerware is prepared to challenge everything you thought you knew about plates. Born in Milwaukee in 2015, Patra Eco-Dinnerware provides a more sustainable option to set the table. Remarkably, Patra gathers palm leaves from tropical countries, such as India,  Sri Lanka and Thailand, and brings them together to create a new classification of disposable dinnerware. Even though Patra’s products are made out of simple, cut-and-dried palm leaves, their designs are anything but plain. In addition to traditional bowls and plates, Patra manufactures dishes in nearly every shape imaginable: heart-shaped petals, triangles, boats and even school lunch trays. On top of these various plate options, Patra also offers their customers straws and utensils to further the sustainable dining experience. Thanks to the raw nature of their design, food is sure to pop against the elegant, bare beige tone of Patra products. All Patra’s Eco-Dinnerware is eco-friendly through and through. They are entirely biodegradable and compostable, and Patra never has to cut down a single palm tree in the process—they only harvest leaves that have already fallen to the ground. Additionally, no dyes or bonding agents are used to alter the leaf’s original look and feel, which leaves each plate with its own unique and natural fingerprint. “We just accept the leaf as it is,” says Tom Dorairaj, the founder of Patra Eco-Dinnerware. “They come from the ground, we make a plate out of it, eat off of it, compost it and they go back into the ground. That’s our end goal.” Dorairaj insists that he wasn’t the sole mastermind behind creating plates out of palm leaves. Instead, he credits the earliest humans for pioneering the idea, as they ate off of the sturdy, green leaves before plates were even an option. In addition to our original ancestors, Dorairaj drew inspiration for his dinnerware from his experience growing up in India. He says it wasn’t unusual to see people use palm leaves as a quick and easy disposable substitute for a plate. Spending his childhood in India instilled a respect for nature within Dorairaj. He often joined his parents and grandparents on hikes through the lush mountains, where he was taught that anything they brought with them on the trail should never be littered or thoughtlessly left behind. Today, Dorairaj’s reverence for nature lives on through Patra Eco-Dinnerware and his passion for bettering the planet. Not only has he committed to making Patra an entirely green brand, but he has also distributed his plates to zoos across the United States and made Patra a proud member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. “What we are doing is a small piece in the puzzle,” says Dorairaj. “But we still have a long way to grow. As a society, we are still learning how to be more eco-conscious and eco-friendly.” With Patra Eco-Dinnerware, you are in control of your own carbon footprint, and it’s finally easy being green.