Italians avoided paper straws or biodegradable plastic straws. Those who know Italian well may not be surprised to see that they use straws made from pasta in local bars and restaurants. The perfect alternative linking national culture with the idea of helping the environment.
It’s Not a Straw Like a Straw
Just as the Philippine Café makes straws from the leaves of the banana trees, Italian restaurants and bars use the material that is closest to them – pasta.
Pasta straws, manufactured in Italy and sold by the British company Stroodles, last more than an hour in a cold drink. After the straws are over, you can add them to the compost or even cook them. They are not recommended for hot drinks, as they could easily be cooked as ‘al dente’.
Stroodels are made from only two ingredients, as well as quality Italian pasta: durum wheat and water. They are virtually tasteless, but you may notice the taste of uncooked pasta as you explore your taste buds.
Every Step Counts
Founder Maxim Gelmann hopes to inspire more people to reduce the use of disposable plastic products.
“Stroodles is not just a straw company and there is a much bigger picture, as I feel I can leave a long-term impact by creating a ripple effect by triggering many small changes all across the world, especially among people that are less conscious of sustainability and their respective actions and behaviors.
Thus, Stroodles is rather a movement and an educational company and a gateway to more sustainable behaviors and thinking and the straw is just our first channel (of communication) in our mission to fight plastic waste.
We thereby want to attract and reach the less (environmentally) conscious people and show them, how easy it is to make sustainable changes and have them enter their life,” said Gelmann, to Bored Panda magazine.
Plastics, especially disposable ones, infest the planet, breaking down into micro-plastics, which reach our dish through the food chain. Over 500 million plastic straws are used every day in the United States. Most of them are too light to go through the recycling process. This is not only the Cocos Islands, which have become a landfill of oceanic plastics.
The aim of Stroodles is to show that plastic straws are not a necessity of modern times.
Source and credit: themindunleashed.com/2019/11/bars-italy-pasta-straws-cut-down-on-plastic-waste.html, https://www.instagram.com/stroodles_straws/
