"I hate washing dishes. I grew up without a dishwasher, and even though I have one now, I hate loading it because my husband always tells me I load it wrong. To prove the point, he reloads it.

I love using paper plates. But I must admit I feel a little guilty adding to the landfills. So I try to rinse and reuse the paper plates I use. But when you end up washing paper plates, you know you’ve gone bonkers.

Enter Happy Eco. Compostable plates and cutlery. The Amazon site says the plates are made from sugar cane and the knives and forks from corn starch. Everything about them, including the box they come in, is biodegradable. However, it’s all made in China. So I sure hope Happy Eco seriously supervises the manufacture of their products in China, because they didn’t supervise the printing of the box in which their products came. Written on it is: “Responsible made in China for Happy Eco LLC.” [See photo]

I don’t have that much to say about the plates. They’re nice. They’re sturdy. They make me feel virtuous. The cutlery, however, I love. Especially the spoons. I really like the way they feel in my mouth. They’re “warm” in a way that plastic isn’t. Lately, I’ve started a small composting experiment. We’ll see how these work out.

Note to Happy Eco: please fix the English on your boxes. Bad English makes me trust your products less. Also, I went to the website listed on the box to participate in your giveaway. I got "404 PAGE NOT FOUND.""

"I love these compostable dishes. They are sturdy and BPA free. This set serves 50 with large and small plates plus silverware. The only downside to this particular seller is that you can buy a similar set for about 5 - 9 dollars cheaper."

"As an old guy with limited mobility, I use disposable products a lot to simplify my life. This set really stands out from most of the paper plates and plastic utensils I've used before. The plates are solid and durable feeling. Paper plates often feel so flimsy that I have to use them two at a time when putting hot food and such on them. Not these plates though. They are sturdy enough that I only need to use one at a time. The utensils were a pleasant surprise. I thought they would be like compostable wooden utensils I've used before. Wooden spoons tend to be too flat for soup and such. Wooden knives are often too dull for effective cutting. Wooden forks may have thicker tines that make it hard to spear food items. The spoons, forks, and knives mostly worked just fine, with a couple of minor exceptions.

Those exceptions move the discussion to the minor issues mentioned in the title of this review. I eat a lot of taquitos and will often cut them in half and then spear each half with a fork to lift it up for eating. That's the one place where the tines on these forks seem to be a bit too thick for easy spearing. Also, while cutting the taquitos, there is a flex in the fork that makes it a bit harder to cut the food. It would be nice if the forks were just a touch stiffer.

There is another minor issue with this plate set but this may be a personal idiosyncrasy of my own, your mileage may vary. That's the size of the plates. I'm a guy, with a big guy's appetite. Usually, I'll use a 10" or lager plate for my main meal, with an 8" or 9" plate for dessert. So the 9" dinner plates and 7" dessert plates are just a bit small for me. They seem more like the size for a little girl's birthday party or for a tea party she might host for her friends. That may just be me though. Given the compostable nature of this set and its durability, not to mention the attractiveness of both the plates and the utensils, I do have to give this product a solid 5 star rating."