I'm hearing more and more about people buying plastic cutlery based on corn and or potato starches.

The thinking is "Hey, these are plant based, and biodegrade". The problems?:

• It takes an awful lot of petro to grow, process the crops, the manufacture this stuff (maybe as much as just making them from oil directly).
• Most of these are just tossed in the regular trash, where they end up in a landfill, sealed up by more layers on top. No Oxygen = No biodegredation. If you are going to toss these, the best place would be with your yard waste if you have that picked up by the city.

There are actually several ratings for these kinds of plastics:

• Degradable

  • Biodegradable

    • Compostable

This is just one small example of how people are quick to think there is a way to get something for nothing in the eco sense. There is no such thing as "good disposable".