Eat This?

How edible packaging could shake up the food industry

Javier Sirvent for TIME

These flavored cups let you have your drink and eat it too.

As a good citizen of the planet, you might recycle the wrappers encasing your food. But would you actually eat them?

In an effort to reduce the 70 million tons of packaging waste building up in U.S. landfills each year, several groups are making it possible to do just that by creating food wrappers and containers that are edible, soluble and even flavorful. Imagine drinking from a cup and then eating the cup itself--flavored with lemon or lime, like a gummi bear--for dessert. Or dropping a packet of cocoa into hot water and watching its plastic-like casing dissolve. Companies like Indiana's...

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