Why We Made
the Switch

Let me be direct about something: as a business, we produce waste. Not as much as we used to, and we are always working on it — but the honest truth is that running any operation means making choices every day about what you throw away and what you don't.

We switched to paper straws a few years ago because that was the obvious move. Everyone was doing it. The plastic straw ban was coming. Paper felt responsible. And for about three weeks, it was fine. Then we started paying attention.

Paper straws are not what they appear to be. They contain PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the so-called "forever chemicals" — used to make the paper water-resistant. They use adhesive glue to hold the spiral together. They are made from bleached wood pulp. And when they get wet — which they do, because they are paper in a liquid — they fall apart in your drink and leave a soggy, chemical-tasting mess at the bottom of your glass.

We were not solving the problem. We were just moving it around.

"We were not solving the problem. We were just moving it around."

Then We Found Naturally Straws

BC-grown grain fields — the source of every Naturally Straw

Naturally Straws are exactly what they sound like: the hollow stem of a grain plant — rye, wheat, or similar — harvested, cleaned, and cut to length. That is it. No adhesive. No bleach. No PFAS. No pulp. Nothing added. Nothing left behind.

They are grown by BC farmers using carbon-negative agricultural practices. The grain absorbs CO₂ as it grows. The straw — the part that normally gets ploughed back into the field or burned — gets harvested instead, cleaned, and shipped to us. The farm sequesters more carbon than the entire supply chain produces. That is what carbon negative actually means.

When we are done with them, they go straight into the compost. Not the recycling bin — the compost. Because they are literally a plant. They break down completely. Zero waste is not a marketing claim here. It is just biology.

And They Actually Work

Hot coffee, straight straw, no soggy collapse — Naturally Straws hold up

Here is the part that surprised me most: they perform better than paper straws in almost every situation we use them in. Hot drinks — coffee, tea, hot chocolate — no problem. The grain stem is naturally hollow and naturally rigid. It does not absorb water the way paper does. It does not collapse. It does not leave a taste.

Soda bottles? Works perfectly. The straw is rigid enough to push through a bottle opening and narrow enough to fit. Sparkling water, kombucha, fizzy drinks — no issues. The carbonation does not affect the straw at all.

The mouthfeel is different from plastic — in a good way. It is smooth, natural, and slightly warm. The first time you use one, you notice it. After that, you just notice that it works.

Paper vs. Natural — The Honest Comparison

The Business Case

I want to be honest about the economics too, because that matters. Naturally Straws cost more per unit than the cheapest paper straws. That is true. But when you factor in the waste — paper straws that fail mid-drink, that customers put down after one sip, that you replace twice as often — the real cost difference narrows considerably.

More importantly: we are not in the business of pretending to be sustainable while using a product that contains forever chemicals. That is not a trade-off we are willing to make for a few cents per straw.

Naturally Straws delivers to our office. The straws arrive in minimal packaging. They go into the compost when we are done. The whole supply chain is local. That is the kind of decision that is small in scale and meaningful in principle — and those are the decisions that add up.

"It's not much. But it's also not nothing. And it's the right call — for the business, for the people drinking from them, and for the farm that grew them."