Sustainable Straws from Agricultural Waste Fibers with Excellent Toughness, Water Resistance, and Biodegradability

The mass consumption of plastic straws already seriously causes environmental pollution and harms human health, which urgently requires the manufacture of eco-friendly straws as alternatives. Herein, a facile approach was reported for producing tough, water-resistant, and biodegradable lignocellulose straws. The renewable agricultural residue (i.e., rice stalk) was pretreated with a deep eutectic solvent to redistribute lignin from the stalk fibers and obtain two cellulosic materials: lignin-regenerated cellulosic fiber (LRCF) and lignin-dissolved cellulosic fiber (LDCF). The LRCF and LDCF were refined and fibrillated and subsequently utilized to form a wet film. The wet film was then rolled into a tube without any adhesives and dried as straw products. The obtained straws exhibited excellent mechanical properties (maximum tensile strength and toughness of 90.2 MPa and 15.3 MJ/m3, respectively), water resistance (maximum water contact angle of 95.34°), and natural biodegradability (the fastest complete degradation in 25 days). These straws are fully derived from lignocellulose biomass and provide environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic straws.