Why Euro Straws

The material

Euro Straws are made from a compostable material developed in Germany. It contains no PLA, no plasticisers and no BPA.

PLA is the plastic-like material most compostable straws are made from. It performs well in the glass, which is why it is popular, but it only breaks down under sustained high heat in an industrial composting plant. Take PLA out and you have to solve the durability problem another way. This material does.

Compostable, but where?

Industrial composting is the assumption behind most compostable packaging sold here. It is also infrastructure South Africa has very little of. A straw certified to break down at 58 °C in a controlled facility, thrown into a bin goes to landfill like everything else.

These are certified to break down in an ordinary garden compost heap, at whatever temperature the weather is doing. That is a harder certification to earn and a more useful one to hold, because it does not depend on infrastructure that is not there.

What the certificates say

Each of these was issued by an independent testing body. We are happy to send you any of them.

• Home compostable Certified to NF T 51-800, the standard for composting in a domestic heap at ambient temperature. TÜV Austria
• 125 dishwasher cycles Tested to EN 12875-1 and declared suitable for repeated use. Not a straw that survives one drink. SGS
• Safe for food contact Tested against EU 1935/2004, the European regulation covering materials that touch food and drink. SGS

Where they end up

When a straw has done its work, it goes on the compost heap and breaks down into the heap. No separate collection, no industrial facility, no special bin. For somewhere with a garden or a vegetable patch, that is the end of the story.