Cafe in the Philippines Now Uses Straws Made Out of Coconut Leaves to Cut Plastic Waste

A cafe in the Philippines has been earning praise online for using biodegradable straws made out of coconut leaves as a means of reducing plastic waste.

The eco-friendly straws called lukay (local term for palm leaves) can be found in Cafe Editha, located in Dapa, Surigao del Norte.

In an interview with INQUIRER.net, Cafe Editha manager Sarah Tiu shared that the idea to use lukay drinking straws came to her during a tour with her family to the Corregidor Island in Siargao.

“We bought fresh buko and they just cut lukay, then made it into straws,” the 37-year-old manager was quoted as saying. “So we asked them to teach us [because] we were very impressed with the idea.”

Tiu recalled that she has tried using different alternatives to plastic straws in the past as it has always been her goal to minimize, if not eradicate, the use of plastics in her establishment.

According to Tiu, previous attempts to use stainless straws and paper straws did not go well as their customers “didn’t like using it.”

Tiu introduced the use of lukay straws in their cafe last week and it appears to have been received positively not only by her cafe’s patrons but by netizens on social media as well. She also shared the photos of the lukay straws on Facebook in a bid to inspire other restaurant owners in their city.

Tiu told BuzzFeed News that she and her staff make palm leaf straws before the cafe opens each morning. It reportedly takes less than two minutes to make a single straw.