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June 2006
The picnic-plate challenge
BAMBOO VS. PAPER Bambu plates leaked when coated with oil and water.
The claim. New disposable Bambu Veneerware All-Occasion plates, made of bamboo, “will not bend or buckle under the weight of food.”
The test. We pitted Bambu plates against plates of coated paper (Dixie Ultra), foam (Hefty Everyday Strong and Spill Resistant), reinforced
paper (Chinet Classic White Dinner), and regular paper (America's Choice Heavy Duty). To test whether food soaked through,
we placed each plate on a preweighed paper sheet, poured tap water and peanut oil in the middle of each, left them for 60
minutes, then weighed the paper sheet again. To test the plates' ability to hold your picnic dinner, we loaded each with fried
chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, and cole slaw (almost a pound per plate), left the plates for a minute, then picked
them up, observing whether they bent or buckled.
CR'stake. Boo for bamboo. The Bambu plates were soaked through, in one case leaving a palm-sized leak on the paper sheet below. Reinforced-paper
and standard-paper plates were damp underneath; the others didn't leak at all. The Bambu plates met their claim of standing
up to food, even when loaded to overflowing, but so did most others. Only the regular-paper plate collapsed. Given Bambu's
price--almost $1.50 per plate online and in stores, vs. 6 to 20 cents for the rest--and its propensity to leak, it's not a
good alternative to paper.
