The effort to reduce plastic waste around the globe is grand in scale, but small steps in everyday life such as using non-plastic and reusable alternatives to plastic straws can lead to a big difference. In recent years the switch has been made easier with various wooden options and even been made aesthetically pleasing alternatives such as stylish Japanese ceramic straws.

Now Okinawa-based maker Food Reborn is giving us a tropical fruits alternative in the form of straws made from pineapple leaves.

Under the slogan "towards a tomorrow where nothing is thrown away," Food Reborn is a manufacturer that has been developing products and battling food waste by extracting fibers from leftover pineapple leaves, which would normally be thrown away, and transforming them into clothing.

Their latest effort is a straw made from leftover pineapple leaf fiber. Food Ribbon touts the straws as an environmentally friendly product made of a natural material that is biodegradable, combining PLA (polylactic acid/corn starch) with cellulose residue from the extraction of fibers from the leaves that were left in the field after the fruit was harvested and discarded.

At the beginning of April, the company began shipping the straws to hotels and businesses in Okinawa as a means of promoting SDG conscious efforts, and plans to expand sell them throughout Japan and overseas as well through their online store.