Plastic Straw Mini Packages

Straws.  Remember what a great treat it was to be able to use a straw with your soda at a restaurant?  Because you hardly ever got to use one at home?  And how much fun you had blowing bubbles in your milk?  As a child, weren't straws just a thing of beauty?

Yeah, those same plastic straws being banned in Seattle and in cities throughout California and other oh-so-progressive locales.  If only we could be so cool here.  Alas, we are mere deplorables living in flyover country.  Sadly, we'll just have to console ourselves by coming up with creative uses for the suddenly much-maligned humble straw.  Embarrassingly, we aren't even recycling them.  How we can even dare to show our faces in public remains a mystery.

Actually, you can recycle your straws for this project, as long as they have been thoroughly washed and dried.  But we almost never go to restaurants and don't have jumbo straws here, so we had to purchase new ones.

Plastic straws are perfect tiny waterproof packages for a myriad of items that we like to keep in emergency evacuation bags, medical kits of all sizes, camping kits, etc.

So what exactly do we use plastic straws for?  Lots and lots of things! 

• Pills:  Generally in single doses.  I make an exception for chewable baby aspirin, because if someone is having a heart attack, you want a lot of it.  Right now!  Some pills can fit in regular straws; some require jumbos.  They're perfect for boo-boo kits, IFAKs, car kits, and advanced medical kits without having to carry whole bottles around. 
• Medicinal powders in medical kits:  Powders, like activated charcoal, can be very messy;  straws contain the mess better. I use jumbo straws for these.
• DIY single uses of creams:  Triple antibiotic and Benadryl and other creams (also toothpaste).  Sure, you can buy single uses of triple antibiotic and many creams, but not all.  So far I haven't been able to find single use packages of Benadryl cream, something I really like to carry in my kits.  And it can get a little pricey if you're building kits for a lot of people or if you only need one or two packages of items that are only sold in large quantities.  Small straws for these items. 
• Food:  yeast (the yeast sold in single packs in grocery stores often doesn't work for me, so I buy one-pound bags), powdered eggs, Parmesan cheese, dehydrated butter, spices, salt, sugar, pepper, etc.  Yes, you might get the little paper packages of these items, but they aren't waterproof and straws are. 
• Waterproof matches:  make sure the end you are sealing doesn't have the business end of the match.  Just sayin'.

So how do we do this?

First, get yourself some straws.  You shouldn't actually need that many, as you can get quite a few packages out of each straw.  My grocery store sells jumbo straws, but only colored ones.  Amazon has clear jumbo straws, but of course, they're more expensive.  Clear straws are nice, because you can easily see what's inside, but you're probably still going to have to label each straw anyway.  Colored straws just kinda look fun.  And if you actually remember what pills, powders, foods went into which color, you can find them more quickly.  For example, Benadryl, that little pink magic pill, always goes in a pink straw.  Aleve (naproxen sodium) is a little light blue pill, so it goes in a light blue straw.  You get the idea.

Then gather the rest of your supplies and items to put in the straws.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• straws
• pliers
• tea light or birthday candle
• matches
• ultra fine tip Sharpie
• something to work on, like a plate or a pie tin
• filler items
• medications and creams
• medical powders
• food items
• strike anywhere matches
• whatever you want to have

General directions:  Light candle.  Crimp straw closed in pliers with just the tiniest bit of straw hanging out.  Melt that end in the candle flame to  seal it. 

For dry items:  Seal the first end, fill, put pliers on filled end, cut to size, seal. 
For wet (cream) items:  Cut the straw, fill by squeezing the cream in, and seal ends.  Ends with liquid on them may take a few attempts to seal.

Caution:  Do not do this with hand sanitizer.  You know, alcohol.  You know, very flammable, as in, burn your fingers right off.

Links to related postsc:
Mini Sewing Kit in a Straw
Cotton Ball Fire Starters
Duct Tape Suture in a Straw  

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