Bigfork innovators kickstart titanium straws

Malissa Kelly and Steven Kelly have spent the last six months testing straws — titanium straws that is.

After tasting chemicals when drinking through a plastic straw, Malissa thought there should be an alternative.

“I was disgusted with the chemicals leaching into my drink from traditional plastic straws,” she said. “I started to do some digging and found out that a simple plastic straw isn’t so innocent. Over 500 million straws a day go into landfills in the U.S. alone. They will take over a million years to break down. What they use to make it is not really fit for human consumption.”

She decided to develop a reusable titanium straw. Titanium, she said, is lightweight, doesn’t collect bacteria and holds up over time.

“It’s a really unique material,” she said.

After perfecting the design, the Kellys launched a Kickstarter, an online crowd-funding platform, hoping to raise $1,200 to cover the cost of materials and production in their Bigfork shop. Within the first six hours the goal was met, and as of Monday afternoon over $4,000 had been pledged to the project.

Malissa said she felt reassured by the response and hopes to continue to get the word out about alternatives to plastics.

The straws will be individually packaged with a cleaning brush and retail for about $22.

“Titanium is expensive, but it will last a lifetime,” Malissa said.

Straws can be pre-ordered through the Kickstarter page. Go to www.kickstarter.com and search yitanium drinking straws.

Pledges can be made to the project until 8 a.m. on July 3.

“It’s unique and it’s good for the planet and good for ourselves,” Malissa said.