Sustainable.
Today as I took one of my daily walks I came by one of our neighbors homes. They moved in about a month after we did but into a beautifully designed home that they intend on making into a café at one point or another. A very young couple with an adorable little girl.
The other day they had a huge group of people over and I’ll be honest I was wondering if they had decided to open the café sooner or was doing some type of tasting but after talking to them today I discovered they were making sustainable straws.
Single use plastic has become a big issue in the world and I’ll be honest Japan has an addiction to plastic like no other. Straws are a huge part of that issue as almost every cold drink and some hot come with a straw.
Every day I discover new things about our town and how the community as a whole tries to work together to become a more sustainable community. My neighbors solution to the plastic straw issue is the use of WHEAT.
You see the surrounding area and most of our neighbors grow wheat. They use it for everything from udon, bread and tempura, the list goes on and on. But what do they do with the stocks once done? Most of them either burn it or throw it in a pile. They do keep some of it as it’s a good insulator for the soil to help the earth retain water, thus less watering. But the bulk majority of it, is discarded.
She has taken the stocks learned how to separate the core from the shell and make them into straws. Skinnier of course then the traditional straw but larger then those used for just stirring.
Biggest caveat for all of this; at least in my opinion, is the lack of paper taste. Paper straws and the flavor they add to coffee or drinks in general is the worst experience anyone can go through. Some of the best coffee I have ever drank, were ruined after the straw started to leach its flavor.
Getting home I was honestly excited to test the straw out, to see how it tasted and if it would be worth it. And I’ll be honest, it’s a great substitution and one that I could live with easily.
Personally speaking I am not the greenest of people. I do take time to sort out our recyclables from combustibles but that is mostly due to the fact that the rubbish people will reject it if wrong. But coming up with a sustainable option that doesn’t affect the taste of the product is something I can 100 percent get behind.
So today is dedicated to innovation. To the people who see outside of the box, the ones who decide that they want to utilize as much as they can before discarding. You all are and will make huge differences!
