It hurts just writing this, but an estimated 8 million tons of plastic garbage that ends up in our oceans annually, plastic straws contribute a great deal to this. Thankfully, innovative ideas on how to deal with this growing issue keep on coming. The latest comes from a startup called Loliware, which has managed to find an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic straws by reaching out for help to the ocean itself. The company has come up with an ingenious way of processing seaweed and make straws out of it “that look, feel, and act like plastic”. Not only are the straws edible, but they also have a shelf life of up to 24 months and break down at the same rate as food waste – roughly 60 days or less. The startup eventually aims to completely replace plastic straws used at high-waste venues like stadiums and fast-food restaurants. With plastics being found on every continent and at the bottom of the world’s deepest oceans, innovative solutions like Loliware’s are just what we need.
Seaweed is here to join the fight against plastic straw pollution
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