Disposable products are gonna have problems to keep them cheap. The solution to straws is non-dispossble straws, always was.
Also this is still a silly topic, straws won't save the planet.
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Disposable products are gonna have problems to keep them cheap. The solution to straws is non-dispossble straws, always was.
Also this is still a silly topic, straws won't save the planet.
Or stop using straws all together. Cups/lids can be made differently, so they are more like a sippy cup. You don’t NEED straws. Humans are totally capable of drinking directly from a cup, even without a special lid.
Single use bendy straws were literally invented to help keep bedbound and other disabled people alive.
Which is the only legitimate use case, but I bet >99% of straws produced aren't used for that.
And you can buy bent straws in multiple materials, which are not intended to be disposable.
No, no straws for anyone, and take away their special ramps too. It's all or nothing because that's the only way my argument works. Color spectrum, exceptions? All I see is black and white.
To be fair, drinks with ice in them are still miles easier to drink with a straw.
No doubt. But something with a smaller hole in it, like the newer Starbucks (I’m sorry I hate using them as an example) cold cups works fine with ice too. Hell, something shaped like the top of a soda can would do it, no more difficult to make than the straw accepting lids, and then no straws.
Straws are an accessibility need for some humans, not everyone is actually physically capable of drinking directly from a cup.
That’s fine, they can have their own non disposables for their own needs. We do NOT need to keep polluting the planet (yeah I know there are plenty of other ways we do it) with EVERYTHING being disposable.
Strongly recommend hay straws (like, made of "straw").
They're better than paper in that they don't sog up. They're inconsistent in size but that has never bothered me. A little flimsy, but I stir iced drinks with them all the time.
Or just drink from the cup?
Or steel straws. I've been using those for about 5 years now
I had metal straws but I switched to glass because I can see if they’re clean easily and they feel better imo.
I can't do metal, I HATE the feeling of metal on my teeth. There are ones with silicon nubs on the end, but then that's more plastic...
Doesn’t work well for thicker beverages like milkshakes or iced coffee’s. But for most drinks i agree no straw is best.
I've had similar, but they smelled like... hay.
Do these have any smell?
They don't have any taste even if you chew on them a bit. The box does have a slight shrub odor, but it doesn't seem to be present when using them.
No comment on the level of PFAS aside from
though the levels were low
This is just feeding the outrage machine to get clicks. If it was a story they'd be citing concentration guidelines and telling you what concentrations were found in the products. It's not a story, it's rage bait.
I agree 99%. The 1% left is that, honestly, it is shitty that they contain any kind of PFAS to begin with. If PFAS in any kind of concentration are part of the production process, then it just isn't sustainable in the long run.
But the question is why do we need straws at all. I doubt that back in 1970 anyone would drink a latte macchiato with a straw. I found it strange just 15 years ago. If you fancy straws, you can get one high quality reusable one (steel, bamboo whatever) and carry it with you - I find this proposition much less offensive then expecting me to always carry a huge reusable cup with me. And for the most part you can consume drinks without a straw.
Now, there is people who have disabilities that require them to use a straw. For them, have some in store as a vendor, and hand them out if requested.
Once in a restaurant I got some longe macaroni pasta as a straw and I still think this was genius.
If I'm not mistaken, manufacturing facilities spray PFAS agents on various conveyor parts to prevent pulp from sticking to them and therefore require stoppage and cleaning. In other words, PFAS reduce the time and money spent on cleaning manufacturing equipment. Congratulations shareholders!
I'm glad someone is thinking of the shareholders. It's about time we focus on them and not such pesky abstractions like "the environment" or "the future"
/s
We have a couple metal straws and washable plastic ones. The metal ones probably have lead and the plastic ones are made of baby kittens.
“All the straw manufacturers should take warning and say, ‘Hey, do we use this stuff?’ Because at the moment, they’re not even asking that question,”
That is kind of concerning!
PFAS is everywhere at this point. Unfortunately they're reeeeeally good at what they're designed for and they're cheap. We'll need viable alternatives so they can be phased out. I think they should be banned from products that don't really need them like dental floss and hopefully we come up with an enzyme or something that can cheaply break it down in the environment.
Side note, there has been at least one study that shows that donating blood regularly can reduce the amount of PFAS in your blood. This doesn't solve the problem of the stuff being everywhere but it's good to know you can remove it from your body over time.
I don’t fuck with ANY straw that ain’t metal
I'd suggest not fucking with anything that lacks a flared base.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Scientists in Belgium recently tested dozens of straws from supermarkets, retail stores and fast-food restaurants in the country, and found that the majority contained PFAS — a family of synthetic chemicals used in the manufacture of consumer products because they can resist stains, grease and water.
Thimo Groffen, an author of the new study and environmental scientist at the University of Antwerp, said it’s not clear whether the manufacturers of the straws he analyzed are intentionally adding PFAS as a waterproof coating.
Graham Peaslee, who studies PFAS at the University of Notre Dame and was not involved in the new research, said it's possible manufacturers aren't testing for the chemicals in their own products.
Keith Vorst, director of the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium at Iowa State University, said some of the straws in the study exceeded the proposed EPA concentrations for water.
Various states, including California, Colorado, New York and Oregon, have banned plastic straws from food establishments in the last five years, and chains like Starbucks have phased them out.
The main reason is that the straws generally can't be recycled, so they wind up in landfills, get burned in incinerators or become litter that contaminates oceans, rivers, lakes and streams.
The original article contains 958 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
sigh We can’t do anything right, can we?
This bot is terrible and I wish it would be banned. It's basically just randomly selects snippets and it leaves out very important details.
The actual article says that the concentrations are very low and they don't even know if the manufacturer is intentionally putting them there or if they're finding their way in from other sources during manufacture. Also says the bamboo straws may have been grown in soil containing PFAS.
They even found PFAS on most of the glass straws.
It's concerning sure but the levels are so low that straws are the least of our concern when it comes to PFAS exposure.
It's important to keep in mind that 75% of plastic straws also contain PFAS.
The truth is, the PFAS stuff is independent of the main material of the straw* (yeah there's an asterisk, sec on that). It just so happens that PFAS are really good when we need to have a material not stick to food stuff too well and become unhygienic during its intended use time.
*: Straws from glass and metal are an exception because those materials naturally do not bind well to grease, liquids and stains. They don't need an extra PFAS coating. But plastic, paper, bamboo, they virtually all do.
That is to say, I would split the problem: We got the main material part done now, we're no longer using plastic for it. Now to get the coating done and use something that degrades very quickly.