Background of marine debris for straws
Plastics are everywhere. Single-use straws stand out the most, producing 30 billion or more yearly. More than 500 million straws are used and disposed of daily, creating a lot of garbage. The result is that it endangers our health and the environment.
Concept environmental plastic pollution ocean water with garbage human waste @ Adobe Stock
Problems of ecological crisis
Marine litter affects the bio-environment, threatening the lives of creatures living in the ocean when mistreated by these animals, stopping them from food uptake and leading them to death.
Entangled Sea Turtle On A Ghost Net @ Adobe Stock
A turtle eating plastic bag underwater in open sea @ Adobe Stock
Marine plastic pollution and nature conservation concept - penguin trapped in plastic net @ Adobe Stock
Beach Cleaning. Cleaning dirty beaches by the action of man. Sustainability of the planet and preservation of nature. @ Adobe Stock
Inspiration
Images of origami. These things could fold and ship flat and then open to create structure.
White soft light chinese circle folds paper fans on table with wall as as decoration in elegant asian abstract background, copy space. @ Adobe Stock
White paper boat in the clear water of large lake with a stony bottom @ Adobe Stock
Experimental process
Initially, I tried to make the straws recyclable and minimize the space requirement. I drew a line with a pencil on the paper to outline the straw and add in the sheath due to hygiene concerns. The final design is to fold the paper one time in the same direction, fold back the sheath part to seal the opening, and use a perforating rotary cutter to line out the notch, fetching the Foldable Straw.
How Mass Production
One piece of paper forms the straw and the sheath at a time. For waterproofing, use a PBS (Polybutylene succinate) biodegradable plastic coating. Successive folding of the paper, sealing the edge with a heat-pressing machine, and cutting out the notch with a perforating rotary cutter.
STRUCTURE
How it works
When a straw is needed, the user presses the paper gently to pop up the Foldable Straw and presses back gently again to flatten the straw to put it away along with its sheath into a recycle can.
Award & Milestone
I was glad to receive the 2016 IDEA Bronze Award and was gratefully interviewed by several media outlets discussing problems affecting Taiwan's environment.
