A few years ago, a professor’s walk inside Bengaluru’s Christ University led to a discovery. Saji Varghese, associate professor in the University’s Department of English, noticed several fallen coconut leaves and was reminded of his prior conversation with a visitor from the Netherlands on the single-use plastic menace. ‘Why not turn them into straws?’, Saji wondered.
The straws made from 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 students, as co-founders. Today, the team comprises 115 women working at their production centres (across 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 brand’s name. “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 adds that epicuticular wax in the straws is brought on to the surface with a simple steaming process and the straws can thus be made in a simple chemical-free rolling process. “Now, we also make straws from the cuticle of pandanus and pineapple leaves,” says Saji, also coordinator at Christ University’s Social Entrepreneurship Wing of Christ Incubation Centre.
The team comprises 115 women
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Special Arrangement
Fallen leaves are primarily sourced from Kanyakumari, Nagercoil, Pollachi, and Palakkad and straw production centres are in Kasargod and Palakkad in Kerala, Tuticorin, and Bannur . “We collect close to 9,000 fronds a month,” says Saji, adding that the making process happens 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 remove impurities, and then steamed to bring the epicuticular wax onto the surface. These processed leaves are rendered into spools that are transported to the straw production centres where they are rolled into multi-layered straws.
Saji Varghese (third from left) and a few members from the team
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Special Arrangement
Saji recalls how he started with a single layered straw, rolled spirally. “It took me a year to develop these multi-layered straws. I got a patent from India and grants from the US and Europe. This unique design makes the straws sturdy and the steaming and UV sterilisation processes makes them anti-fungal. We have now developed third generation machines which have the capacity to roll out 1.5 lakh straws a day,” he adds. These machines will be deployed across India to reach a production of 60 lakh straws a month that will provide employment to 500 women in the next three years, says Saji.
They also craft pens made from coconut leaves.
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Special Arrangement
But, how do these straws compare to paper, and other 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 supplies to 68 hotel chains in Bengaluru, Goa, Delhi and Ahmedabad including the Taj and Four Seasons. “We are also exporting to the Netherlands, Canada, and Spain, among other countries.”
So, the next time you are at one of these hotels and served a cocktail or juice with a straw crafted from coconut leaves, you know whom to thank.
Details on sunbirdstraws.com
