Meet lovely Beate, traveling through Indonesia! She just got herself a bunch of Bamboo straws on Gili Air island. The non-plastic Reusable Straw is now the new Travel Essential Must Have wherever you are heading to. Beate got the idea to doubled it up as a great local souvenir gift for friends and family, light and easy to carry in your backpack!

Any one traveling trough Asia, and for that matter nowadays through most countries in the world, gets given a plastic straw with every single drinks on daily basis.
The scale of the damage of this one single trash item can not be emphasized enough. They end up on the side of the road, on the local trash burn pits, on the beach next to your towel, in the Ocean while you are swimming and in the stomach of many birds, fish, turtles and marine mammals.

More than 5 million straws are used daily in the USA, plastic constitute 90% of the trash floating in the Ocean and plastic straws rank in the top 10 of marine debris.

Beate shares this story:
“I am at the Beach in Sanur Having my Last coconut and using my New straw before heading to the airport.
The waitress comes:
Oh you have your own straw?
-Yes! A Bamboo one.
I have never seen this, where did you get it.
-On Gilli Air! You want one? You can use them in the cafe instead of the plastic ones and wash them.
Oh! Really? Good idea.
But she is too shy to want one. I pull out one straw stick and give it to her. Please try it I say.
She Smiles. Thank you! 😊”
You never know how much you can inspire change around you!

At Ocean Great Ideas we have been using bamboo straws for a few years now as Yulia was an early adopter and bought some online for her kids to use daily in Canada but also for Sylvie to go and travel with! They are practical, light and quite beautiful really.
The only down side is that they blend so well with the coconuts that Sylvie tends to forget them when she is done drinking!
Other than that, all it takes is to have your straw with you at all times in your daypack tucked between your beach towel and your bikini and to make sure you add a “No straw, please!”  when you order your drink! A simple gesture making such a big difference. So easy!

Various options are available for you to travel with:
– the light raw natural material bamboo straws
– the easy to wash glass straws,  a bit more fragile to travel with, I personally broke a couple but absolutely ideal for businesses like bars and restaurants;
– or the very durable easy to wash stainless steel metal ones!

These ones are sold by Gili Eco Trust in Indonesia, but they are available in most online stores like amazon or eBay.