Not all straws are created equal. In recent years, the world has been awash with cheap, low-quality paper straws. These threaten to give the paper straw industry a bad name, as increasing numbers of consumers complain about their soggy, bad-taste drinking experience. It’s our mission to turn the tide, and give global brands far superior products.
But how do we go about making a paper straw that’s long-lasting, safe, and tasteless? The first thing you need is the right materials. So we partnered with two world-leading companies, both of whom are fully-invested in our sustainable effort; delfort and Henkel.
The team at delfort are innovators in specialty paper. They’re the best in the business. Tembo Paper’s straws are made using delfort’s unique FibreStraw® technology; soil and marine-degradable paper made with renewal materials, zero PFASs, and certified pulp from responsible managed forests. It’s a specially-designed and food safe material for paper straw products, and this sets it apart in our industry.
In Henkel we have a global partner, who is an expert in the adhesive industry. Our paper straws need to be held together by adhesive, and Henkel’s AQUENCE® ST product is a brilliant food-safe, high-resistance glue. Its quality and strength mean that we can minimise the amount of adhesive in our paper straws, increasing sustainability and reducing production costs.
Tembo Paper brings these fine materials together, and crafts them into high-quality paper straw products. Our machines use our unique vertical spiralling technology, meaning we can produce u-shaped, telescopic, and straight paper straws at a high volume with low waste.
In the end, we have a high-quality composition that guarantees rigidity while keeping the straws as thin as possible. Tembo Paper straws can withstand immersion in liquid for up to three hours, without deforming or disintegrating at the ends. And leaving them in for this long has zero effect on the taste or fizziness of drinks, and is 100% safe and user-friendly.
As a group of organisations, we’ve all signed the Charter of Trust for Paper Drinking Straws; an initiative developed by 360° Foodservice that ensures safety and quality in the production and supply of paper straws. At Tembo Paper, we’re also proud to be members of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition in the USA.
Together, we’re fighting the good fight. We’re bringing better paper straws to market, which boosts consumer confidence in these products and reduces the impact of plastic waste on the environment. Our clients and partners are able to meet fresh government regulations, and the problem of sourcing high-quality sustainable paper straws is getting solved.