Eco drinking straws: Grass is greener
Frustrated by Vietnam's plastic waste problem, entrepreneur Tran Minh Tien is producing eco-friendly drinking straws made from grass. Business is booming, but Tien's challenge now is to ensure his idea is sustainable.
Natural innovation
Vietnamese entrepreneur Tran Minh Tien has tapped into the natural resources in his local area in a bid to do his bit to tackle plastic waste. His company 3T produces drinking straws from hollow grass which grows wild in the Mekong river delta, west of Vietnam's capital, Ho Chi Minh City.
Harvest time
Tien and his team pick the grass by hand from swampland areas near their village. Grey sedge grass has hollow stems which makes the plant ideal for making straws. That's just the beginning: Transforming the wild glass to a finished product fit to drink from is a labor-intensive process.
Green and clean
Once the grass has been harvested, workers wash the long stems to get rid of excess dirt. Because the grass, known locally as "co bang," grows in the wild, it is naturally organic and free of chemicals and pesticides.
Scaling up precision
Workers use thin metal rods to fully hollow out the grass stems before cutting them into uniform lengths of about 20cm, the same size as a regular drinking straw. The business started in 2017, and the company now produces about 3,000 straws a day.
Dry and mighty
The straws are then left out to dry in the sun for two or three days, or alternatively baked in an oven. Once completely dried out, the they can be used for up to six months. Demand for the reusable, biodegradable drinking straws is growing, but company founder Tran Minh Tien says he has to be careful about how fast he can expand his business in order to keep it sustainable.
Respecting nature
"Right from the start, I formed this idea around the fact that the harvesting can never exceed the grasses' natural reproduction rate," said Tran Minh Tien, 32. "Nature has to have enough time to recover as well."
Drinking straws with a difference
Finally, the straws are gathered into bundles and wrapped in banana leaves ready to be sold. Tien's company now makes a profit of around 3,600 euros a month. He says he sees the grass straws as a temporary solution to the problem of plastic waste. But for him, they're a step in the right direction — and proof that it pays to be green.