OTSU -- A female illustrator living in Shiga Prefecture has developed straws made of barley to be sold in the prefecture, amid growing concerns about the environmental pollution caused by plastic waste around the world.
Yuka Yahiro said she was inspired to develop the product when she heard that barley stalks were used as straws in the past. The straws began to be sold in August at a restaurant in Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Koka and other places.
Yahiro, 49, has been growing barley without using pesticides since 2018 as she has been allowed to use fallow land owned by a member of an environmental conservation group in Yasu called "Seseragi no Sato" (Literally: Village of a little stream), in which she had participated.
If you cut the stems, boil them to sterilize them and then dry them, you can make straws about 5 millimeters thick. The straw is as soft as plastic, but unlike paper straws, it does not dissolve in water and can be disposed of as combustible waste after use. She said the straws can also decompose into compost after being mixed with soil in the garden.
In 2019, she prepared about 15,000 straws, including pesticide-free glutinous barley stalks donated by a farmer in Omi-Hachiman, as well as barley. She also prepared paper straw cases with illustrations of barley receiving a subsidy from the Shiga Prefecture Industrial Support Center.
She named the product "Straw Tail" from her murmuring "sutoro'tte iru" (Is a straw necessary?), which sounds like the product's name.
"I hope the products will make people think about environmental issues," Yahiro said.
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