“We wanted to come up with something really good,” says Elin Wik, who, together with Svea Granström on Sollerön and 3 other young people from Orsa and Idre, runs the UF company Make a Change.
“Something that no one had done before and that is also sustainable for the environment. First we looked at compostable bags as an alternative to plastic bags, but we wanted something of our own that we could produce ourselves. We wanted our product to be sustainable in every way. On a wholesale website online, we saw that there were reed straws produced in Asia. We were hesitant so we tried to find out more about the product but we didn’t get an answer. There was also a company in southern Sweden that produced this type of straw.
We decided to try it ourselves and started looking for reeds. We have surveyed all the bays on Sollerön in search of suitable raw material. Finally, we found what we were looking for in Nörderwejk.
The reed is about 2 meters high and production takes place in 7 steps:
1. picking 2. cutting in a band saw to 18 cm 3. boiling 4. polishing/brushing inside and outside 5. boiling again 6. drying 7. packaging. The straws are reusable and are easily cleaned by boiling or washing in a dishwasher. The cardboard is sorted as paper packaging, the string as residual waste and the straws as compostable.
When Solleröbladet sees the packaging, it is clear that the young people have thought of a sustainable and environmentally friendly design. Brown cardboard, green logo and brown and green laces. Inside is the whole story on one page.
Recently, the company has spent a lot of time participating in UF competitions. They have reached the finals in all of them and won the Mora final in the company of the year and the Dala final in the ecological sustainable company of the year. Now Make a Change UF is in the SM final on April 12 in Stockholm. An SM final that will be held digitally.
Sales have exceeded expectations. So far, the volume has exceeded 3,000 straws. Production takes place on Sollerön and in Orsa. All sales take place online, on Facebook and Instagram. But there are retailers who are interested. When the school term is over, Make a Change UF will be closed according to the rules. But, perhaps the young people will start over as a limited company.
Now we keep our fingers crossed for the young people in the upcoming Swedish Championship final. And you, dear readers, have the chance to buy local sustainable straws for your café latte or drink. You can find the young people's company on Facebook, Instagram and by email: contact.makeachangeuf@gmail.com
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