Paper straws are becoming more and more common as cities and major companies across America ditch the plastic straw.
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Footprint, a Gilbert-based company, is now set to make 27 million paper straws a day and create 260 jobs at their new state-of-the-art 135,000-square-foot Gilbert production facility.
The new paper straw production lines will start officially making paper straws on October 1st.
ABC15 got a sneak peak of production ahead of that launch, getting a first-hand look at how paper straws are made. Troy Swope, founder and CEO of Footprint, says he trusts that Arizona has the innovation and talent to turn paper straw critics into believers.
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"We're going to apply that talent to solve the straw problem, make the performance better."
Currently, 500 million plastic straws are used every day in the United States. Plastic straws will never biodegrade but Swope says his paper straws will biodegrade within 80 to 90 days.
RELATED: Starbucks ditching plastic straws from stores
Footprint also develops and manufactures other proprietary and patented technologies that enable their customers to eliminate plastic. Such as paper bowls, trays, cups and plates.
