Article by Alice Armitage Photography by Luke Burgess

It may be the new normal to think twice before getting a plastic bag at the supermarket, but have you made a change when it comes to all the other single use plastics in your day to day life? Teresa and Manon, co-founders of Little Green Panda, are an unconventional pair, tackling an- other single use plastic behemoth - straws. With plastic straws taking two hundred years to break down and in the process leaching harmful chemicals into the ocean – it’s where they usually end up – it’s pretty clear that doing something to address the ten million plastic straws being used in Australia every day is something we should all be paying attention to.

Teresa and Manon are not your everyday startup partners, after having both individually estab- lished their own businesses in the same space, they decided to merge. Leveraging their skills, experience and resources to build one strong business, tackling single use plastics and the waste epidemic. Once getting to know these girls, it’s evident that they make for a cracking team. Both incredibly driven, hard working visionaries with an appetite for creating lasting change. The pair’s business offers wheat stem straws that are durable, 100 percent biodegradable and anti-microbial, giving the good old plastic straw a real run for its money.

You’ll find that the wheat stem was actually the original drinking straw, dating back to the 1800’s. Which sees Teresa & Manon using their ingenuity, not to reinvent the wheel. But to rehash an old one. Another example of how the revitalisation of traditional practices and methodologies is often the answer for simple, sustainable alternatives for many current day sustainability conundrums.

With wheat stalks typically being a waste product in the wheat production process, the material makes for a great renewable and ecologically sustainable material substitute. Which has led the girls to some incredible success with their simple, but effective straws, having sold hundreds of thousands in their first two years of business. They’ve established a customer base here in Australia and in France, including placement in some of Australia’s trendiest restaurants, bars and hotels.

With straightforward processing and production methods which include no chemical processing, there’s just one downfall to the wheat stem straw - it’s almost impossible to find somewhere to process and manufacture the straws onshore in Australia. Something that the girls are continuously working to address, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic has caused so much havoc with international supply systems.

Although Teresa and Manon have reluctantly outsourced the production of their products to China, they’ve implemented traceability practices to ensure the authenticity of their products being processed offshore, and are continuing to invest in supporting the growth of Australian based manufacturing options. As with any product based business, it always takes time to get the cogs turning as they should, but add the dynamic of being a sustainability driven enterprise and the mechanics all take a little more navigation. Needing to balance the ecological implications with the financial needs of the business, and their ability to consistently deliver a high quality product. It’s not an easy gig, and as the tech era has made us accustomed to overnight success stories and exponential growth, sometimes all there is to do is take it one step at a time. The girls will be the first to admit that they aren’t perfect, but they keep showing up and face every challenge head on, knowing that all they can do is try to do a little better everyday.

Their hard work & ingenuity is paying off, with some of Australia’s most established institutions working with Teresa and Manon to continue the research and development of single use plastic alternatives. Seeing the girls working with Deakin University, the CSIRO and the SproutX Accelerator Program, incredible accomplishments from this tiny but mighty team.

It’s only some days that you’ll find Teresa diving to clean up plastic from the ocean, but you will always find this team doing everything they can to offer a solid plastic alternative, and seeding waste management education into their work wherever they can.

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