Everyone has a bad paper straw experience. They work fine for a few minutes, and you feel great about making a more sustainable choice, but when they start disintegrating and falling apart, making them impossible to sip through, it often makes people wish they had just grabbed a plastic one instead. Many different straw alternatives have been created, like those made from metal, bamboo, or glass. While reusable, these alternatives are often more expensive and harder to scale, so restaurants tend to choose paper straws instead. But some companies are working to find better alternatives.
Approximately 10 million tons of coffee waste is produced each year globally, which releases methane and other greenhouse gases as it decomposes in landfills. Additionally, the coffee industry, specifically cafes, produces over 11 million tons of plastic waste every year. Hoping to address these problems arecompanies like Nanosentrix, which are creating plastic straw alternatives using coffee waste. Spent coffee grounds sourced from cafes and food manufacturers are mixed with existing biodegradable binders to create straws that are sturdy and don’t get soggy. Unlike paper straws, these straws are also heat-resistant, making them perfect for hot drinks. Once the user is finished, these straws will biodegrade after a few months, leaving no microplastics or toxins behind. These straws are made with existing moulding technology and manufacturing machinery, making scaling production simple. The material used to make these straws can also be used to make cups and cutlery.
Grassip is producing straws made from dried wetland grass. Inspired by other natural plants-turned-foodware, such as coconut shell bowls and gourd bottles, this company looked to nature for an alternative. This grass is naturally hollow, and because it grows in marshes, it is also water-resistant, meaning no more soggy straws. Large amounts of this grass can be grown in a small area, and each stem can make up to 4 straws. That means production of these straws is easily scalable. The inside of the stalks is cleaned after being cut to a standard size. These straws can last for 2 weeks fresh and up to 6 months when dried. After use, they simply biodegrade in a few weeks.
With over 500 million plastic straws used daily in the US, many other companies are working to make alternatives from basically any natural material you can think of: rice, coconut, sugarcane, corn starch, wheat, oats, etc. There are plenty of straw options that are environmentally friendly, biodegradable, and plastic-free that restaurants could choose from. And yet, we seem to be stuck with paper ones that fall apart in minutes.
