Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Contents And Sustainability Of ‘Environmentally Friendly’ Cutleries, Paper Plates, And Plastic Cups, Caroline Jacobsen, Lauren Poscillico

Other Student Research in Physics, Astronomy, and Geophysics

To determine the sustainability, and the level of environmental-friendliness of each of these brands of cutlery, plates and cups, we first used the PIXE technology to determine the inorganic contents of the main cutlery pieces and compare this content to that which is found in potatoes or corn, depending on what the brand claimed to use for manufacturing. We also used corn and potato starch to make our own homemade plastics, which we used for further comparison. As an additional side study, we left samples of some of the plastics outside, to determine how much each would degrade under sustained …