Algae Straw
The plastic straw ban is a major step for society to acknowledge that our lifestyles directly influence the fate of our planet. Many people support the ban of plastic straws… but they aren’t ready to give up straws entirely. Paper straws take the same form factor of plastic straws but do not perform as well as them, causing users to be displeased with them.
Working with designers Shaya Alafaraj and Alice Hixon Kirk, an agar based edible alternative was developed. This straw is made from algae, and is flavorable, colorable, and even nutritious. In a normal straw form this material is too malleable to stand up to normal sucking, swirling, and crushing. To solve this, we tested different wall configurations to create a strong straw form that resembles candy rather than a traditional plastic straw. This new form helps users identify the algae straw and know that it is a sustainable, edible alternative to the standard plastic ones.
Chipboard, a similarly fexible material, was used for prototyping and testing the optimal wall configuration for a strong algae straw. The design team administered compression tests by hand and with a vacuum to get the full effect of a user sucking on a straw.
The final form resembles licorice aesthetically yet also makes the straw significantly stronger thanks to its construction of multiple smaller diameter circles. The straw is produced by pouring warm agar gel into a mold then baking it until it shrinks and solidifies. When wet, agar can hold a large amount of water, so the mold needed to be much bigger than the final form. Once de-molded, the wall thicknesses of test prototypes were over five times thinner than their original gel molds.
The team then conducted user tests by giving samples of the agar material to random students to eat.
The results were both entertaining and positive.
The Future of Takeout exhibition. Designed by Karol Murlak. Constructed and maintained by Garrett Benisch.
The Algae Straw was exhibited at the NYCxDesign Times Square Pavilion among other Pratt projects concerned with the future of disposable takeout packaging. The exhibit was made almost entirely of waxed un-dyed cardboard. At the closing of the event, the entire exhibit was dismantled and picked up by a cardboard recycling service so that it did not go to waste.
Garrett Benisch l Alice Hixon Kirk l Shaya Alafaraj