In Vietnam's Mekong Delta, a small company called Ong Hut Co turns the hollow stems of a wild wetland sedge into drinking straws. The plant, Lepironia articulata (known locally as cỏ bàng), grows tall, straight and naturally tubular, so the straws need no moulding, glue or coating: the stems are simply cut, cleaned and sold. They are compostable, add no flavour to a drink, and can be used fresh or dried. Here is how they are made, how they compare with other plastic-free straws, and where their limits lie.
How the grass straws are made
The business was founded by Tran Minh Tien and is based in Duc Hue district, Long An province, on the edge of the delta where the sedge grows wild in seasonally flooded land. Its process, as described in a case study by the IDEASS innovation programme, is simple:
- Stems are harvested by hand and washed.
- They are cut into tubes of about 20 cm.
- An iron rod is pushed through each tube to clean the inside, followed by a final rinse.
- Fresh straws are bundled in banana leaves for delivery. Dried straws are sun-dried for two or three days and then baked in an oven.
Fresh straws keep for around two weeks in the fridge or one week at room temperature. Dried ones last up to six months. At home they can be washed, dried and reused until they soften, then go in the compost with food scraps.
Tien has stressed that harvesting must not outpace the plant's natural regrowth, and he has said openly that grass straws are not a complete fix, because the supply of wild sedge is limited.
The plant behind the straw
Lepironia articulata belongs to the sedge family, Cyperaceae, which also includes papyrus and water chestnut. It grows in swamps and shallow freshwater wetlands across tropical Asia, northern Australia and parts of the Pacific and Madagascar. Its stems are smooth, round and divided inside by thin cross-walls at intervals, which is why cleaning the inside of each straw is a necessary step.
In Southeast Asia the same plant has long been woven into mats, bags and baskets. Using it for straws is a newer idea, and it has spread: small producers in Indonesia, Thailand and elsewhere now sell similar products.
One point worth clearing up is the name. The plant is sometimes called "grey sedge" in English articles, but grass straws are not made from true grass. Botanical names matter here, because "grass straw" is also used for products made from wheat stems, reed or bamboo, which behave differently in a drink.
How they compare with other plastic-free straws
Ong Hut Co is one of several attempts to replace single-use plastic straws. Each has trade-offs:
- Grass or sedge straws are minimally processed and compostable, but supply is seasonal and limited, and fresh ones spoil within days or weeks.
- Rice and tapioca straws, launched by a Malaysian firm and first served in some Singapore restaurants in 2019, are edible and hold up for several hours in cold drinks, less in hot ones. They are manufactured, so they need factories and energy.
- Paper straws are widely available but can turn soggy, and some have been found to contain water-repellent PFAS chemicals.
- Bamboo, glass and metal straws are reusable for years, which is good for the environment if they are actually used many times, but they need cleaning and are not ideal for everyone.
- No straw at all is the lowest-waste option for most people. Many cafés now offer sip lids or serve drinks without a straw unless asked.
There is also an accessibility side. Many disabled people rely on bendable, durable straws to drink safely, so bans and alternatives work best when businesses keep a suitable option available on request.
How big is the plastic straw problem?
Straws make up only a small share of plastic waste by weight, but they are a common item on beach clean-ups and are easy to swallow or become tangled up in for wildlife. They are also hard to recycle because they are light and slip through sorting machines.
The wider problem is enormous. Researchers estimated in a 2015 study in Science that between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic entered the ocean in 2010 alone. The often-repeated comparison of one garbage truck of plastic dumped into the sea every minute comes from that range, and was popularised by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's 2016 report on the plastics economy.
The same report projected that, if trends continued, the ocean could hold more plastic than fish by weight by 2050. That is a projection based on assumptions about growth in plastic use and fish stocks, not a measured fact, and some scientists have questioned how precise it can be. The direction it points to, however, is supported by many later studies.
What a grass straw can and cannot do
A sedge straw is a neat example of design that borrows a shape nature already made. It avoids plastic, needs little processing and gives rural workers income from a plant that grows wild. Those are real benefits.
It is not a full answer, though. Wild harvesting has to stay within what wetlands can regrow, transport adds emissions if straws are shipped far, and a compostable straw dropped in the street or the sea still becomes litter until it breaks down. The bigger gains come from using fewer single-use items overall and from systems that collect and handle waste properly.
Small habits that help
If you want to cut straw waste, the simplest step is to say "no straw, thanks" when you do not need one. If you prefer using a straw, carry a reusable one or choose cafés that offer compostable options and have a way to compost them. Supporting refill and reuse schemes where you live, and disposing of packaging in the right bin, does far more than any single product swap.
Sources: IDEASS: Wild grass straws, Vietnam; Wikipedia: Lepironia; Wikipedia: Marine plastic pollution. Images: Ong Hut Co; video: VnExpress International.
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