When's the last time you ordered your straw al dente?

A viral photo on the r/mildlyinteresting subreddit shows a customer's drink at a hamburger restaurant, with a straw made out of pasta.

The straw's wrapper, also visible in the photo, shows it is gluten-free and made from a company called Pasta Life.

The food and beverage industry is still trying to make straws more sustainable. According to the Turtle Island Restoration Network, more than 390 million straws are used each day in the United States, and the average lifespan of a straw is less than 30 minutes.

This results in millions of straws being thrown out daily and contributes to the more than 170 trillion pieces of plastic polluting our oceans.

Many governments globally have banned plastic straws — although President Donald Trump says he is in favor of them — and other alternatives have been tried with varying levels of success.

Pasta Life claims its straws are not only biodegradable, but also edible — so long as people don't mind eating uncooked pasta. They also say the straws are tasteless and will last for more than an hour in cold beverages "under normal drinking conditions" without getting soggy, although they are not recommended for use in hot drinks.

Some commenters said they were familiar with the restaurant in the photo, Super Duper Burgers, and had a good experience with the unexpected straw.

"The straws are surprisingly durable," one wrote. "They have no taste, feel like very thick plastic, and I couldn't tell much of a difference after half an hour in my drink.

"It did get a bit more brittle (I snapped it afterward out of curiosity) and it's still wet pasta, so I'd definitely consider the straws one-time use, but I'd take these things over paper or plastic straws any day."

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Other commenters couldn't resist making pasta-based jokes, with one calling the straw "the perfect thing to drink marinara sauce with."

But many were impressed with the straw's ingenuity, and the restaurant's environmentally friendly policies, such as serving its food on reusable metal trays with fully compostable tray liners, cups and straws.

"Honestly, I love it," one wrote. "The less plastic in our foods and environment the better."

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