The HALM Founders
Hello! We are Hannah Cheney and Sebastian Müller, the founders of HALM.
We share ten years of living and working together and a great passion for sustainability.
What drives us is the thought of a better future in which coming generations can live in a clean and safe environment.
How it all began
In 2015 we travelled to Southeast Asia and visited the Thai island of Koh Phayam. We quickly noticed that huge amounts of plastic were being washed up on the beach.
We decided to organise a beach clean-up and within two hours had filled sack after sack with plastic waste - almost 4.000 litres in total!
The number of plastic straws we pulled out of the sand was shocking.
Our insight
- Every day, around three billion plastic straws are used and then thrown away. That's equivalent to the weight of about 500 orca whales! On average, a straw is used for only 15 minutes.
- Yet it takes 300 to 500 years for a plastic straw to decompose. As it breaks down, it doesn't vanish without a trace but turns into microplastics. These particles end up in the soil, in the ocean, in our food chain and ultimately in us too.
- After plastic bottles and bags, plastic straws are among the top 5 most commonly found items of litter on beaches.
For us it was clear: we have to change that! We started looking for alternatives. There were plenty: from paper and metal to bamboo and straw. But every alternative came with some kind of drawback.
Eventually we realised that glass is the best alternative to plastic:
Reusable, taste-neutral, easy to clean and hygienic.
Our success
And so, in 2016, we founded our start-up HALM. At first we had a lot of convincing to do, because glass drinking straws were still completely unknown. In the early days we went from bar to bar and restaurant to restaurant to present our innovation in person. But word of our product's unbeatable advantages spread quickly.
Today, many thousands of hospitality businesses are among our customers, and our HALM straws are available from countless retailers - from the small zero-waste shop to the large supermarket.
Every day we can avoid more than a tonne of plastic - an enormous amount! It quickly becomes clear that the plastic straw is not just a minor evil, but really adds up. And that motivates us to carry HALM further out into the world and reach even more people.
Together with our steadily growing team, we spread our message every day, bringing more flavour to your drinks and less plastic to the environment.
The journey continues
We want to free the world from the disposable plastic straw.
But it goes much further than that: we want to draw attention to the entire plastic problem, raise awareness and ultimately bring about positive change in the way people think and act.
So with your purchase at HALM you not only avoid waste, you also help to ensure that waste that already exists is collected and then properly disposed of. Because every HALM set donates, and every donation supports further cleanups and less waste in nature.
The plastic straw has become a symbol of wastefulness. With HALM, we are now creating a symbol of sustainable quality.
Enjoy sustainable sipping!
