Seaweed straws could soon replace single-use plastic straws

In an effort to phase-out single-use plastic straws and curb the effects that plastics have on climate change, one company came up with an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic straws. The startup company, Loliware, recently developed a straw made from seaweed.

In a Kickstarter-funded project, the company made “the gluten-free, non-GMO, sugar-free marine degradable straws” that “can withstand 18 hours of continuous use,” EcoWatch reported. The project has exceeded its initial goal by more than $20,000 and has close to 1,100 supporters.

“Every piece of plastic ever created still exists,” Chelsea Briganti, CEO of Loliware, said in a statement. “There are five trillion pieces of plastic in our oceans; an estimated ten million tons of plastic is produced every second. Single use plastics should never be built to last, they should be designed to disappear.”

The sustainable seaweed straws “is a regenerative resource capable of sequestering carbon dioxide in an effort to curb the effects of climate change, the developers said in a statement. The straws have a shelf life of 24 months, take 60 days or less to break down – the same as food waste – and are edible.

Loliware’s goal as a company is to replace single-use plastic straws with their seaweed straws at “high-waste venues like stadiums and fast-food restaurants,” EcoWatch reported.

While pressure continues to mount for the elimination of single-use plastic, many companies have switched to paper straws as an alternative, “which cost three times as much to produce as their plastic counterparts and require tree-based resources,” EcoWatch reported.

Loliware’s “hyper-compostable” seaweed straws look and feel just like plastic straws and could soon be in a drink near you.