This College Professor Is Turning Discarded Coconut Leaves Into Biodegradable Straws
Saji Varghese, an English Professor from Christ University, Bengaluru has made eco-friendly, biodegradable straws from coconut leaves.
The seemingly harmless plastic straws that we use and throw is one of the biggest environmental pollutants in the world.
According to the Trash Free Seas Alliance, the average American uses 1.6 straws a day. In the US alone, that¡¯s enough to circle the equator two and a half times.
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Despite it being such widely used, plastic straws are often not recycled as they are too lightweight to make it through the mechanical recycling sorter.
A large chunk of the discarded plastic straws ends up in oceans and other water bodies, choking them and marine life in it.
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One of the ways to reduce our dependence on plastic straws is by using other, more eco-friendly alternatives.
Unfortunately, such options are few and far between.
But one man from Bengaluru seems to have a solution for this.
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Saji Varghese, an English Professor from Christ University, Bengaluru has made eco-friendly, biodegradable straws from coconut leaves.
Chance discovery in 2017
According to him, it was a chance discovery in 2017, when he saw fallen coconut leaf in the campus.
"I picked it up and noticed that the dry leaf had folded, giving it the shape of a straw," Varghese told The Times of India.
He then took the leaf to a lab and steamed it under high pressure to discover it developed a natural shiny layer under heat.
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In the next few months, he experimented with coconut leaves and came up with a single-layered straw by binding it with food-grade glue.
Straw made with a shelf life of 12 months
Varghese continues experimenting and in 2018 he made a multi-layered straw out of coconut leaf. His organic creation was not only anti-fungal, but could also withstand water for more than six hours, with a shelf life of over 12 months.
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Varghese who was awarded the patent for his innovation now markets the biodegradable straw under the brand name SunBird.
He said that since the launch, the straws are now being exported to 25 countries, including the US, Australia and EU nations.
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The 51-year-old said that the impact of the cornute straws are not just limited to being eco-friendly
It help prevent the burning of coconut leaves
Most of the naturally dried leaves are burnt in landfills or open kitchens.
Help women to generate income for their families
Communities in rural areas have a poor standard of living due to farm dependent incomes. SunBird provides livelihood to the urban poor and rural women, mainly in coastal regions of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Prevent plastic straws from getting into our oceans
Almost all the plastic straws end in the ocean, polluting water and killing marine life. The biodegradable straws will not harm the environment.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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