Best of all, silicone is durable and lasts forever, but when the straw’s ready to toss, just burn it. The Koffie will turn into 100 percent biodegradable ash."
That sounds like a cure worse than the disease. Isn’t the problem with plastic is that it’s “durable and lasts forever?”
And burning these straws to get rid of them is a ridiculous idea. Burning your garbage is illegal here in California and I suspect in many other states as well. If it weren’t illegal you could easily enough get rid of the plastic straws by burning them too.
The difference is most plastic straws are single use and throw away whereas the silicone straw is meant be used again and again and again.
I’m no plastic scientist so can opine with any knowledge on burning plastic vs silicone but I’m pretty sure they have very different properties. My understanding is that burning silicone doesn’t give off toxic materials.
Half the states have facilities that burn waste and turn it into energy.
Hmm…same thing could be said about glass syringes…now that WOULD clean up a problem in my area. (yup, mom - the nurse - had a set of glass, reusable syringes. We could have boiling/sanitizing stations.
When I was 16 I worked in an ER as part of the clean up crew (no, not in the US). they used re-usable sterilizable gauze to mop up blood etc. Straws seem like a nit compared to medical waste - which is much more dangerous. But again, it’s the feel good low hanging fruit.
I don’t mind people suggesting that we consider our use of straws, but I’ve seen this debate on social media for the past couple of months, and many people who are in favor of banning their use in restaurants and other places don’t seem to understand that for some people it is more than just a convenience. People with certain disabilities need the straws - and in some cases a reusable straw is not really the best option for them. Perhaps if we all our part to reduce some of our own waste, this wouldn’t be such a big issue.
We were in Australia earlier this month, and the slogan we saw at the penguin sanctuary we visited seems appropriate: Refuse/Reduce/Reuse/Recycle (my 16yo mentioned that she had never seen it in the US including the “refuse”).
Refuse is a good slogan. Let the person make the choice. Refuse is what I often do. I just bought a dress at Nordies and said no to bag and tissue paper. My purse was large enough to fit my purchase.
“Straws seem like a nit compared to medical waste - which is much more dangerous. But again, it’s the feel good low hanging fruit.”
And why it is an easy adaptation. Nothing wrong with tackling low-hanging fruit first and getting people to think about single use items. I’m kind of amazed several of you feel the need to repeatedly bash something that is a move in the right direction. With a growing population, where do you think all your trash is going? It is mostly a voluntary thing right now. If you don’t want to do it, don’t.
“People with certain disabilities need the straws”
So, let them have their straws. The majority of us don’t need them and it is an easy thing to give up.
“Refuse/Reduce/Reuse/Recycle”
You haven’t heard that before? I sure have, for many years. It’s the backbone mantra of the sustainability movement. Recycling is good but better to not use things in the first place or use something existing or that can be reused.
I haven’t read this thread from the beginning, but I’m trying to reduce my use of plastic by remembering to bring and reuse those flimsy plastic bags from home for produce. Also, not using them at all if I’m buying, let’s say, fewer than 6 of an item.
Last summer I saw an art exhibit of sculptures made exclusively of trash from the oceans of the world. Very sad; these sculptures were huge.
“Who hasn’t ordered French fries to go and watched as the guy behind the counter blindly reached into a tub of ketchup packets, grabbed as many as physically possible, and tossed a near lifetime supply into the bag. Back in the ‘90s, we called that amazing customer service! Today, we call it waste (as we probably should have all along). Plenty of places have been looking to reduce this kind of plastic waste — enacting things like increasingly-popular plastic straw bans. And last week, Portland, Oregon, passed a simple solution to cut the waste of single-use plastics: Restaurants will be required to ask if customers need these items before providing them”
A beachside cafe in Malibu claims to have invented the pasta straw. I ate there a few weeks ago. For cold drinks the straws work just fine. They are wide so that thick icy mixed drinks can flow through. However if the straw sits in the drink for a long time, they can get a little soft.
Ted’s uses paper straws but they grate on my teeth so I choose to sip at their restaurants. My college son got onto me for having plastic stir sticks and bought me some wooden ones. His school has hydration stations everywhere to encourage refillable water botles instead of plastic ones. We’ve just added hydration stations at my work. We’ve always recycled but now much more conscious of cost of materials after use.
The servers automatically put down straws and toss them whether or not they’re used. I can rarely get any words out before they plop a wrapped straw at my place setting.
