Straw

**Straw** is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number of different uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and basket making.

Straw is usually gathered and stored in a **straw bale**, which is a bale, or bundle, of straw tightly bound with twine or wire. Straw bales may be square, rectangular, or round, and can be very large, depending on the type of baler used.

## Uses

Current and historic uses of straw include:

* Basketry
	+ Bee skeps and linen baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique is known as lip work.

* Bedding: humans or livestock
	+ The straw-filled mattress, also known as a palliasse, is still used in many parts of the world.
	+ It is commonly used as bedding for ruminants and horses. It may be used as bedding and food for small animals, but this often leads to injuries to mouth, nose and eyes as straw is quite sharp.

* Construction material:
	+ In many parts of the world, straw is used to bind clay and concrete. A mixture of clay and straw, known as cob, can be used as a building material. There are many recipes for making cob.
	+ When baled, straw has moderate insulation characteristics (about R-1.5/inch according to Oak Ridge National Lab and Forest Product Lab testing). It can be used, alone or in a post-and-beam construction, to build straw bale houses. When bales are used to build or insulate buildings, the straw bales are commonly finished with earthen plaster. The plastered walls provide some thermal mass, compressive and ductile structural strength, and acceptable fire resistance as well as thermal resistance (insulation), somewhat in excess of North American building code. Straw is an abundant agricultural waste product, and requires little energy to bale and transport for construction. For these reasons, straw bale construction is gaining popularity as part of passive solar and other renewable energy projects.
	+ Composite lumber: Wheat straw can be used as a fibrous filler combined with polymers to produce composite lumber.
	+ Enviroboard can be made from straw.
	+ Strawblocks are strawbales that have been recompressed to the density of wood blocks, for compact cargo container shipment, or for straw-bale construction of load-bearing walls that support roof-loads, such as a "living" or green roofs.

* Hats
	+ There are several styles of straw hats that are made of woven straw.
	+ Many thousands of women and children in England (primarily in the Luton district of Bedfordshire), and large numbers in the United States (mostly Massachusetts), were employed in plaiting straw for making hats. By the late 19th century, vast quantities of plaits were being imported to England from Canton in China, and in the United States most of the straw plait was imported.
	+ A fiber analogous to straw is obtained from the plant *Carludovica palmata*, and is used to make Panama hats.
	+ Traditional Japanese rain protection consisted of a straw hat and a mino cape.

* Horticulture
	+ Straw is used in cucumber houses and for mushroom growing.
	+ In Japan, certain trees are wrapped with straw to protect them from the effects of a hard winter as well as to use them as a trap for parasite insects.
	+ It is also used in ponds to reduce algae by changing the nutrient ratios in the water.
	+ The soil under strawberries is covered with straw to protect the ripe berries from dirt, and straw is also used to cover the plants during winter to prevent the cold from killing them.
	+ Straw also makes an excellent mulch.

* Packaging
	+ Straw is resistant to being crushed and therefore makes a good packing material. A company in France makes a straw mat sealed in thin plastic sheets.
	+ Straw envelopes for wine bottles have become rarer, but are still to be found at some wine merchants.
	+ Wheat straw is also used in compostable food packaging such as compostable plates. Packaging made from wheat straw can be certified compostable and will biodegrade in a commercial composting environment.

* Paper
	+ Straw can be pulped to make paper.

* Rope
	+ Rope made from straw was used by thatchers, in the packaging industry and even in iron foundries.

* Shoes
	+ Koreans wear jipsin, sandals made of straw.
	+ In some parts of Germany like Black Forest and Hunsrück people wear straw shoes at home or at carnival.

* Thatching
	+ Thatching uses straw, reed or similar materials to make a waterproof, lightweight roof with good insulation properties. Straw for this purpose (often wheat straw) is grown specially and harvested using a reaper-binder.

## Health and safety

Dried straw presents a fire hazard that can ignite easily if exposed to sparks or an open flame. It can also trigger allergic rhinitis in people who are hypersensitive to airborne allergens such as straw dust.