Plastic Straw Throw-Down

You sit across the dinner table from your date, already thinking ahead to what after dinner might be. You absentmindedly fiddle with the plastic straw in your water, taking tiny sips between flirty smiles. When your tea arrives, you swap glasses and drop in a new straw. The cellophane wrapper blows off the table to the floor to dance after the server's feet.

Dinner goes well, and you take your dessert and your date home...but leave the straws behind.

Four plastic straws used for one or two hours - yet they'll outlast all of your relationships.

Though many plastic straws are made from recyclable plastic, getting them to the proper recycling facilities is another story. Many local recycling facilities don't have the equipment to handle plastics so small - they gum up the works and cause the machines to slow or break down - so curbside recycling is often prohibited. Restaurants aren't incentivized to spend the extra few seconds per customer to collect the plastic straws for proper recycling, which often incurs an extra cost for shipping and processing.

These straws end up in landfills and oceans and the bellies, intestines, and other organs of unsuspecting wildlife who look at them as a possible meal, causing infections, disease, and starvation. It can take 200 years for a single plastic straw to decompose. Since America alone uses an estimated 500 million plastic straws per day (as of 2020), that's a mountain of plastic piling up in our lifetime.

But I need a straw!

Do you? Do you really?

1. Hydrating while driving? Many coffee and soda cup lids from coffee shops and drive throughs have a "drink" tab. Do you drink coffee through a straw? Then why drink sodas that way?
2. Worried about germs on glasses? Reputable restaurants train their staff to properly clean and handle glassware, and let's face it - waterproof lipstick has gotten really waterproof.
3. Could we reuse them? Most plastic straws are simply not designed to be cleaned. They may release undesired chemicals at high temperatures or build up microbial growth.
4. Are there reusable straws? Of course there are! There are so many options for reusable straws - stainless steel, copper, glass, bamboo, silicone, even seaweed. Some are even collapsible for a more compact carry. These are all made to be cleaned and reused endlessly.
5. What about sustainable single-use straws? Of course there are! Early single-use replacements were made from paper - and at first they were not a big hit. But a lot of effort has gone into making paper straws more mouth-friendly. Now, you can find straws made from rice, wheat, grass, and...yes...pasta. Some are made to be compostable, some are made to be edible! There are even flavored straws to add a touch of mint or cinnamon to your beverage.

Explore your non-plastic straw options offered through several of our Shops.

How many plastic straws will you replace in April?