Some of the greatest ideas come in unexpected moments, and for Professor Saji Varghese of the University in Bengaluru, it was fallen coconut leaves that provided that eureka moment.
As he saw some of these leaves on the ground, he noticed that they curled up into a straw-like tube.
And that set off the birth of Sunbird Straws.
A report in The Hindu has some information about the process for making these unique straws.
“The leaves are scraped and rendered into spools, fed into long, spiral rolling devices to make the multi-layered straws, and then cut into standard and customised lengths. Then, they go through a sterilisation process and are packed for sale.”
Now, if you’ve noticed a lot of places using paper straws, you might be concerned that they all tend to disintegrate long before you get to the end of your drink.
But these coconut leaf straws contain natural waxes that help maintain their structure for hours and are 100% compostable.
The company is looking at potential orders of 25 million straws, which could start a trend of removing more plastics from the convenience industry.
