The Coolest Thing We Saw at NPE on Day Five: The Straw Man

Amid much ado about plastic straws, Jason Forgash of Michigan’s Bay Plastics Machinery is thinking inside the box — namely, the BPM Straw Cutter, a countertop unit that ingests the pesky little pipes, shreds them, and bags the remnants for recycling.

Forgash, BPM CEO and president, began thinking of the project a few years ago before handing his concept over to BPM’s engineers to make it a reality. After three iterations, the Straw Cutter was born and ready for its debut at NPE2024.

New pellets from old straws.

Making straws greener is simple with this unit: Just feed a single straw through the inlet, and a small cutting unit inside cuts the polypropylene straw into pieces that fall into a mesh polypropylene bag. When the bag is full, users can ship it to BPM’s recycling partner via Fed-Ex, where it will be turned into new pellets.

Shared DNA with strand pelletizer.

The device features a simple cutting unit with a rotary blade, upper and lower feed roll, and bed knife — essentially a mini strand pelletizer. The cutter attaches magnetically inside the unit; if it breaks, customers can send it back to BPM for repair.

While there isn’t a well-defined customer base yet, Forgash thinks the BPM Straw Cutter is a natural point-of-purchase fixture for a fast-food chain. One customer at NPE thought the straw cutter would be ideal for the cafeteria in his facility.

Related:A Brief History of the Drinking Straw

This novel straw nosher could be ready for production in a month after a few tweaks, Forgash said. After that, if the concept takes off, the last straw you used might be just the first of many made from the same piece of plastic.