This is How Some Italian Businesses are Decreasing Their Plastic Waste

As efforts are being made worldwide to decrease plastic waste, many innovative ideas have surfaced on social media platforms. With this, we can’t help but admire what’s happening in the bars/restaurant scene in Italy.

It seems only fitting that bucatini pasta, the tubular noodle, is the new eco-straw of some Italian businesses. Many establishments are serving their drinks with pasta, in attempts to ditch the plastic straw.

Reddit user u/GranFabio shared his pasta straw drink in the subreddit r/Europe, and generated just under 77,000 upvotes so far, with the top comment of ‘Italian engineering at its finest’.

Taking it a step further, it turns out that the UK company Stroodles actually sells pasta straws that will last for up to 1-hour in a cold beverage. They are both tasteless, and will easily decompose. Forget plastic & soggy paper drinking straws. The founder of Stroodles, Maxim Gelmann explains that:

“Stroodle is not just a straw company and there is a much bigger picture, as I feel I can leave a long-term impact by creating a ripple effect by triggering many small changes all across the world, especially among people that are less conscious of sustainability and their respective actions and behaviors. 

Stroodles is rather a movement and an educational company and a gateway to more sustainable behavior and thinking and the straw is just our first channel of communication in our mission to fight plastic waste. We want to attract and reach less environmentally conscious people and show them how easy it is to make sustainable changes and have them enter their lives

The approach is to do this in a fun and non-preachy, non-finger-pointing manner. I rather aim for people to engage with a Stroodle and then start asking themselves the right questions, like ‘ Why is there a pasts straw in my drink?’’ These little realizations will have them coming to their own conclusions, rather than being sold/preached. 

It’s much more powerful in creating behavioral and mindset changes. And maybe, next time one is offered a plastic bag, they will behave differently.”

While they are not advised for hot drinks – these straw noodles will last an hour in a cold drink and even longer in an iced drink, they may even last for multiple refills. This is such a simple and game-changing idea, what a great initiative to support the planet! Now we are left with only one question… Will they make one that is gluten-free? (Half joking, but seriously though, celiacs need to enjoy these too). 

They can be purchased in boxes of 25 to 100. For business’ looking for bulk orders they can also be made directly by reaching out to [email protected]