Sustain You is a start-up that manufactures biodegradable straws from corn, rice, wheat, and other grain plant fiber. The straws are edible and compostable and offer a great alternative, not just to plastic but also to paper straws, which generally cannot be composted.
Although you can import biodegradable straws, Sustain You offers a cost advantage since they purchase their materials locally, thus reducing shipping costs. They appreciate workforce diversity and make a point of hiring women and minorities.
"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.
The mass of the plastic in the GPGP was estimated to be approximately 80,000 tonnes, which is 4-16 times more than previous calculations. This weight is also equivalent to that of 500 Jumbo Jets.
A total of 1.8 trillion plastic pieces were estimated to be floating in the patch – a plastic count that is equivalent to 250 pieces of debris for every human in the world."
