Nsheke Straws

We are committed to solving plastic straws pollution through scaling up and globally distributing Nsheke Straws.

Nsheke Straws are biodegradable and eco-friendly straws from a naturally growing grass, called ‘Nsheke’ in Haya language, which are found in bushes and domestic farms in Kagera region, Tanzania. Our solution is to bring these straws into modern markets, which for decades have only been used by our local communities for taking local brew.

Our solution will create a lot of employment opportunities to many farmers in the Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as saving their lives and environment.

Plastic Straws like many other plastic products pose deadly impacts to our lives and environment. Below are some of the alarming facts collected from various studies regarding the dangers of plastic straws in the World;

• Plastic Straws used globally in a day can circumference the globe twice
• It takes more than 200 years for a Plastic Straw to decompose
• USA alone uses 500 million Plastic Straws per day
• 8.5 billion Plastic Straws are used every year in the UK  
• By 2050 there will be more plastics than fish in our oceans if we take no action.

The Latin America and the Caribbean are not the exceptions as far as the plastic pollution is concerned.

The problem is highly contributed by the raising behavior of 'drinking with straws' and yet under the limited alternatives to plastic straws. Some available alternatives include paper straws, steel straws, glass straws, wheat straws and bamboo straws. However, Nsheke Straws can be the best of all these alternatives.

We are currently serving the Four Seasons Safari Lodge, one of the biggest hotels in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania https://www.fourseasons.com/se... The hotel has used thousands of our straws, with good remarks.  

We have also been receiving many orders from different hotels in Tanzania and from abroad, and our target is to at least serve all the hotels, bars, restaurants and groceries located near to the beaches, national parks and animal reserves.

We are currently selling our straws at an average of $0.08 per piece which is very expensive. We are aiming to take this down to compete with the price of plastic straws for everyone to afford.

Our plan is to produce and supply more nsheke grass seeds, and distribute to interested farmers in Tanzania and elsewhere, the Latin America and Caribbean inclusive. This will make nsheke straws available in different parts of the World hence replacing plastic straws.

We are selling Nsheke Straws. And below is the complete production line for the product. 

Nsheke Straws are 100% natural, biodegradable and compostable and can be harvested and used straight forward from their plants. Nsheke plants wastes can be used as animal feeds, as well as farm mulching materials. For the sake of best land use, nsheke plants can be inter-cropped with other food plants like banana, potatoes, cassava, etc.

Drinking with straws is already a habit for many drinkers. Again, straws have been very helpful for those who are disabled. So, plastic straws pollution can be mitigated by searching, scaling up and promoting the eco-friendly straws like Nsheke Straws.

We conducted an informal study about user experiences with straws in Bukoba Municipal Council, and below were the key lessons learned from 102 interviewed respondents;  

• 74% sometimes prefer using straws, while 22% mostly prefer using them
• 73% would prefer taking Juice with Straws 
• 69% commonly find/use straws at restaurants in the community
• 82% had used plastic straws in the past 30 days
• Only 10% had used Nsheke Straws, while 57% know who had used them
• 82% are ready to pay for Nsheke Straws at the Plastic Straw price
• Nsheke Straws are not used/known in places where are unavailable
• 66% Straw Market Segment may be taken by Nsheke Straws, 43% strictly
• Most straw users are supply driven, as represented by 75%
• 93% don't know the price of straws, as always included in the drink's. 
• 82% would be shocked by the environmental impacts of plastic products
• 99% would recommend Eco-friendly/Nsheke Straws to their communities
• 86% said no initiatives to raise public awareness on plastic impacts
• Majority (63%) believes that, protecting environment against plastic pollution is the primary responsibility of their government.

Producing more seeds of nsheke plants, establishing many nurseries, and involving many out-growers, hence selling nsheke straws at cheap prices can help us to end the plastic straws pollution.

We are currently serving one hotel, with many other hotels requesting for our straws but we can not extend our supply because of limited resources required to scale up our production. If we can get serious business partners we can serve millions of people in a year, and billions of people in 5 years. 

No measurable impacts yet because, we just ended our research on how to handle the production cycle and just started to serve one hotel and hear the feedback. The Four Seasons Safari Lodge  Serengeti has come to us 4 times requesting to be supplied again and again some thousand straws.

The lives of Wild animals in the Serengeti National Park are now more safe, as tourists camping at the hotel we are serving are no longer using plastic straws but nsheke straws.

There are colleagues from different parts of the World, for example America, South Africa, China,  and India who have been landing on our websites and would like to be part of the initiative. Most of them would like to get a lot of straws for them too supply in their communities.

Sort-run Goals (Up to 1 Year)

• Producing more nsheke plant seeds
• Training local out-growers
• Establishing nsheke plants model farm  
• Serving at least 10 Hotels
• Strengthening local government support

Long-run Goals (Up to 5 years)

• Searching for Business Partners in and outside Tanzania
• Supplying nsheke seeds to the rest of the World – including in the Latin America and Caribbean
• Advancing nsheke straws Processing technology
• Laboratory trials for producing nsheke hybrid seeds and plants
• Providing Nsheke Straws International Standards of Production
• Serving millions of straw users

We are potentially constrained by lack of funds and technical expertise. We don't have any worry about the market for Nsheke Straws.

We are looking for investors who can partner with us in realizing our short-term and long-term goals, both financially and technically. We have 10 acres land for where a model farm can be established as well as 3 acres land where a processing line can be handled here in Bukoba, Tanzania. The later land has access to electricity, road, water, labor, local experience with nsheke straws, etc.

We are still searching for interested farmers from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as investors for Nsheke Straws production partnerships.

We believe the Latin America like many other parts of the world are waiting for eco-friendly straws. Our expansion will start with exporting nsheke plants seeds to interested partners, and try to replicate what is taking place in the Tanzania model farm before engaging many other nsheke plants out-growers.

This solution is worked on by 10 people; 3 - Full time, 6 part-time and 1 interested technical partner (Dr. Sandeep from USA).

Although the surrounding local community knows and have used the straws for decades, no one ever thought of transforming these straws to modern farms and scaling them up to serve the entire world at this time when plastic pollution is undoubtedly endangering our lives and environment.

We were born and still living in the communities where nsheke plants naturally grow, and yet have done a lot of research on the plant. In addition,  we are welcoming professionals and investors into the venture partnership.

We are partnering with Dr Sandeep Kulkarni (PhD), an independent consultant and President of KoolEarth Solutions Inc., based in the USA working in the field of sustainable packaging for his technical and market expertise. He is our mentor and a market research personnel in America. We sent him a few straw samples and found them very interesting.

Sandeep is also consulting some major consumer products companies where there is a strong interest in natural biodegradable straws.

Nsheke Straws key customers and beneficiaries include;

Our solution will get its financial sustainability through a combination of;

• Grants and Award Prizes
• Sales of seeds and Nsheke Straw, and
• Funding from Business Partners (Investors) for Business expansion

We have applied for the rethink Plastic Challenge as we believe the IDB Group can help solve our financial and technical barriers in scaling up nsheke straws for us to solve the plastic straws pollution all over the world, Latin America and the Caribbean in particular.

We would like to partner with plastic straws manufactures so that we we don't eliminate them into the industry and later use their distribution channels. Also Big Hotels especially those located along the beaches, national parks and animal reserve. Further more, we would like to partner with agricultural or agronomic institutions through which we can replicate our nsheke plant seeds. Last but not least, we would like to partner with world environmental organizations to end plastic pollution.