A number of years in the past, a professor’s stroll inside Bengaluru’s Christ University led to a discovery. Saji Varghese, affiliate professor within the University’s Department of English, seen a number of fallen coconut leaves and was reminded of his prior dialog with a customer from the Netherlands on the single-use plastic menace. ‘Why not turn them into straws?’, Saji puzzled.
The straws made out of dried coconut and pandanus leaves
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Special Arrangement
In 2020, he launched Sunbird Straws with Chirag MG and Sandeep U, two of his college students, as co-founders. Today, the workforce includes 115 girls working at their manufacturing centres (throughout Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala) who make 7 lakh straws a month. “Coconut leaves are long with a narrow width which can be rolled into tubes easily. More importantly, the leaves have their own natural wax which make them water-resistant and anti-fungal, two properties important to have in drinking straws,” Saji says. Which explains the model’s identify. “The sunbird has a natural shine on it feathers, and its beak is specially customised to drink nectar from flowers. Our straws also have a natural shine.”
He provides that epicuticular wax within the straws is introduced on to the floor with a easy steaming course of and the straws can thus be made in a easy chemical-free rolling course of. “Now, we also make straws from the cuticle of pandanus and pineapple leaves,” says Saji, additionally coordinator at Christ University’s Social Entrepreneurship Wing of Christ Incubation Centre.
The workforce includes 115 girls
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Fallen leaves are primarily sourced from Kanyakumari, Nagercoil, Pollachi, and Palakkad and straw manufacturing centres are in Kasargod and Palakkad in Kerala, Tuticorin, and Bannur . “We collect close to 9,000 fronds a month,” says Saji, including that the making course of occurs in three phases. First, the collected leaves are cleaned and drawn into strips of uniform width. Then, the underside of the leaves are scraped to take away impurities, after which steamed to deliver the epicuticular wax onto the floor. These processed leaves are rendered into spools which are transported to the straw manufacturing centres the place they’re rolled into multi-layered straws.
Saji Varghese (third from left) and some members from the workforce
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Saji recollects how he began with a single layered straw, rolled spirally. (*7*) he provides. These machines might be deployed throughout India to succeed in a manufacturing of 60 lakh straws a month that may present employment to 500 girls within the subsequent three years, says Saji.
They additionally craft pens made out of coconut leaves.
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But, how do these straws examine to paper, and different eco variants? “Bamboo straws are expensive and are prone to fungus inside if not cleaned properly. Cornstarch and baggase straws have sugar and gluten in them. Hay straws are not customisable, and paper straws are chemically bleached and get soggy in minutes. Our straws hold in a beverage for more than three hours and are customisable to any length and diameter,” says Saji, who provides to 68 lodge chains in Bengaluru, Goa, Delhi and Ahmedabad together with the Taj and Four Seasons. “We are also exporting to the Netherlands, Canada, and Spain, among other countries.”
So, the following time you might be at certainly one of these accommodations and served a cocktail or juice with a straw crafted from coconut leaves, you understand whom to thank.
Details on sunbirdstraws.com
