Plates that survive the service

Wheat straw is a plastic. A better one, but a plastic.

There is a lot of loose talk about wheat straw dinnerware, so here is the plain version. It is a polypropylene composite with wheat-straw fibre blended in. That blend makes it lighter and tougher than the melamine it usually replaces, and unlike melamine it is safe to microwave. It is not china, it will scratch under a serrated knife, and it is not compostable in any ordinary sense. What it is very good at is surviving a dropped tray, a camper van, a rental kitchen or a family with small children — which covers most of the reasons people come in asking for it.