My apologies for linking to a 60 Minutes autoplay interview and accompanying transcript, but I can't find any other press on this guy.
TL;DW / TL;DR - This 80-something amateur scientist has come up with a way to break down cellulose in biomass via shooting an electron beam at it before extracting the energy chemically, and he's gotten some very reputable ex-academics on board with his company.
Seriously? Like with to-go orders? I've never had that. How does it perform compared to typical plastics?
Yeah it's pretty common. Seattle also requires public places to have garbage, recycle and compost so there's an impetus to go with things that'll compost. Chipotle uses them, most food courts use them, they have them at the airport. It's smoother and cooler to the touch than polystyrene, in part due to the texture - it feels more like finely sanded wood than plastic. They're constructed thicker than typical plasticware, more like the stuff you buy for your picnic than the stuff you're used to at Taco Bell. They're bendier, though, so the thickness doesn't gain you the rigidity of picnicware. And you only ever see them in bigger places; I suspect they break down too quickly to sit on the shelf for a year or whatever. You can buy 'em on Amazon. Just search for "biodegradable plastic forks" or the like and you'll see a dozen different companies selling xyleco plastics.