Sibling comment mentions using the stems of grain crops as natural drinking straws. This was done, in the past, and is the origin of the word "straws" for the modern plastic variety.
Historically, straws were also made from waxed paper.
The issue isn't that plastic straws were banned, it is that plastic straws were banned and no additional guidance was provided e.g., mandating paper straws with natural wax coatings. This combined with corporate greed led to companies putting out the most profitable product within constraints of the law-- health and environmental safety be damned.
The first paragraph of the following article describes both types of historical drinking straws:
Waxed straws used paraffin which is made from petroleum anyway, and they still get soaked through and collapse like the shitty PFAS coated straws. I know because they’re still made and I’ve used one, and the attic you posted mentions that draw back.
Straws made from plant stalks simply aren’t suited to mass distribution. They aren’t uniform, can’t easily be sanitized before packaging, they’re fragile, and still leak and get soaked.
The problem isn’t “corporate greed” it’s that there aren’t good alternatives to plastic for disposable straws.
The problem isn't really petroleum. We have more than enough petroleum for straws. And the carbon in paraffin is not in the atmosphere, which is good.
The problem with plastic straws, if you believe their opponents (whose claims I have not evaluated), is that they are persistent pollutants that harm animals. If paraffin-waxed paper straws are not, that's an improvement, petroleum or no.
You ever try eating your fast food on the train/subway/bus. The same situation exists there too.
The problem isn't the cars. The problem is that we don't all live in some fantasy where people have time to sit down and eat their food and drink not on the go. If it wasn't the straws people would be complaining about the plastic coffee cup lids.
The first hot dog man provided nice white gloves for his customers to hold the wieners and toppings with. They were supposed to be returned after use, but evidently they were too fancy and many customers would hang onto them. His wife suggested serving the wieners in a bun instead.
Except you see people drinking through straws while sitting down, too. So weird. I’ve always thought of straws as things only small children and maybe the disabled need. Like if you don’t even have the motor control to merely bring a glass up to your lips. I mean, even while walking and moving I somehow seem to be coordinated enough to sip liquid from a glass. I don’t know, maybe I’m an acrobat or something.
This might be a USA thing but a lot of times in restaurants they’ll bring me my drink with a straw in it and I can’t help but think “WTF do I look like a six year old?”
I used to also but then I started thinking how obscene it is that the piece of plastic will be around for thousands of years just so I can have slightly more convenience for an hour or two.
I guess. It’s a minimal amount of material that’s made from a waste product anyway. Pottery and glass last just as long, or longer.
Something made of cellulose that breaks down more easily would be better, so long as it comes from agricultural byproducts.
*edit I’m saying this might be better because some light plastics like straws end in in storm drains and on road sides, so something that breaks down over time into organic compounds might be preferable.
I am drinking something without a straw right now and maybe I just have a sophisticated technique but I seem to be putting the liquid into my mouth back over my tongue to the same overall place it goes when using a straw?
You said it yourself, there aren't good mass distributable alternatives to plastic straws. I never thought banning them was a meaningful step towards sustainability, but maybe straws should be labor intensive and left for the service industry to figure out as opposed to being mass distribution-friendly.
That'd be preferable to more PFAS, at the least.
Yes. At most they should have levied a tax on them in relation to their (alleged) impact. Outright bans are seldom as economically efficient as an appropriate tax.
> This combined with corporate greed led to companies putting out the most profitable product within constraints of the law-- health and environmental safety be damned
I didn’t expect capitalism to be Fermi’s Filter, but kind of makes sense.
Those still fall apart in liquid after a few minutes and the wax is made of petroleum. I’m not sure plastic straws were ever really a problem worth solving, given the trade offs.
They're definitely usually made of paraffin, and every one I've encountered falls apart quickly. There are two coffee shops near me that use them and they both fall apart within 15 minutes.
Wow. That's evil.