In addition to stainless steel straws, there are bamboo ones and some made out of some other compostable material that are available online (and at some stores).
Bring your own containers for leftover food and takeout food can help reduce trash too. This is something I can and definite rely should do. Most portions are too large unless H and I really want to split an entre.
It’s not that difficult to bring your own containers and have them in your vehicle. It’s just like bringing your own sack for purchases—just takes a shift in mindset.
I spend summers in a beach community that recently banned plastic bags at stores. People were just up in arms about their personal freedoms and all sorts of things, but in the end, it was just no big deal. At all. Stores switched to paper and more and more people started bringing their own reusable bags. And the leatherback sea turtle has started making a bigger comeback. Same thing happened when they banned DDT. OH NO HOW WILL WE SURVIVE? Then eh, not really a problem.
I just do the easy stuff, tbh: reusable bags (they even sell the produce bags), aluminum water bottles, no straws (that was easy for me since I don’t drink soda, so it barely even counts.)
Reducing your trash is easy. Buy less. Don’t get take out or fast food. Don’t order online and get all those cardboard boxes from Amazon and others. Ditch the daily paper and read it online. Drink water. Don’t drink soda or any beverage that comes in a plastic bottle.
Yup, hitting all those already except for I do order online. But reuse/recycle. I’ve always wondered if it is more green to order online vs driving to stores (which aren’t very close to me).
I also buy very little processed food which saves on packaging.
That’s it…drink water, from the tap…filtered if need be. If you’re drinking a soda you’ve already made a solid footprint on the environment. Just consider the energy requirements to ship that bottled sugar water. Same for single serve beer/energy drinks/gatorade etc. (Wait…that means wine is more environmentally friendly than a bunch of other liquids…it’s in a multi-serving container… 
).
Get a soda stream. Squirt in some juice from some sort of fresh fruit. Done. Get tap water at a restaurant…the good one’s will filter it if the city supply is somewhat less than palatable.
Drink coffee at home instead of getting a whappa-frappa-dapa with whip cream drink. Goodness, how would you attack one of those things without a straw. You’d have caramel cream in your hair.
Yes, every little bit helps. So just because one still uses straws, another can not conclude that the straw user doesn’t care.
BTW…garbage and trash disposal is a very cultural thing…travel to parts of South America and you will find it is culturally encouraged to just throw stuff out of the car window. It is okay to leave the baby diapers and empty takeout containers at the local picnic place. When it comes to litter and environmentally sensitive behavior, on a personal level, we as a country are way ahead of the game.
The straw thing reeks of attempts to signal moral superiority.
“When it comes to litter and environmentally sensitive behavior, on a personal level, we as a country are way ahead of the game.”
Sure, it’s relative but we can do better. Many European countries in contrast are way ahead of us. It’s amazing how much they recycle and eliminate packaging.
“The straw thing reeks of attempts to signal moral superiority.”
I don’t see it as such. The intention is that it is a very easy change to make for many because 1. often straws aren’t needed (restaurants around me will put them in a glass of tap water automatically for example) and 2. when they are needed or wanted, there are non-plastic options.
Again, if it doesn’t work for you, feel free to ignore and carry on doing your own thing or reducing trash in other ways.
I suspect all of you with these great ideas are also the first ones to have a fit when companies lay off workers because sales are down… But it’s all the fault of the greedy CEOs, right?
Not catching your point, @MomofWildChild, or the connection to the thread. Whose jobs are you worried about, the straw manufacturers or the plastic producers? And CEOs come in where?
Don’t order online, don’t drink sodas, don’t go to coffee shops…don’t be a consumer.
Haven’t read all 6 pages, but they did make paper straws once upon a time.
Our family took a vacation in Thailand a few years ago and when the winds shifted it was terrible to see all of the plastic floating in the water. Stories on the amounts of plastic floating in the oceans are sobering. Thanks for posting this thread @doschicos
Floral Paper Straws (85 Pack)-100% Biodegradable, Excellent Quality,Trendy & Beautiful Paper Straws for All Occasions (Jumbo Size)–Amazon
Fabulous, use them in hot or cold drinks. Last for hours.
I don’t really ever use straws. But I was wondering if the plastic ones can go in the recycle bin. Hopefully, this hasn’t already been addressed in the thread.
Related but one that bugs me even more…the little plastic coffee stir sticks. they are used for less than 10 seconds to mix up a cup and then discarded. It pains me to watch the waste occurring as people prepare their joe to go.
A very smart shop near me takes dry fettuccine noodles, breaks them into fourths and places them out in a cup to be used as stir sticks. I about fell over dumbfounded with the solution when I first saw it. No plastic and probably even cheaper for them. Simple and elegant…typically the best kind of answer to any problem.
@Nrdsb4 That came up back on page 2 but here’s the answer I gave at the time based on what I’ve read:
“plastic straws are not recyclable. Plastic straws are made from polypropylene, which is a byproduct of petroleum, a fossil fuel that requires an incredible amount of energy and natural resources to extract and refine. Polypropylene is identifiable by the resin identification code 5 and is commonly recyclable, just often not in drinking straw format. Size is the biggest barrier to straw recycling. As plastic travels down conveyor belts while being sorted, small items like bottle caps and straws fall through the cracks and end up being sent to the landfill. As of right now there aren’t many (if any) special straw-recycling facilities either, which means when you use a straw, you know that plastic will sit in a landfill for years to come.”
https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/because-you-asked-what-s-so-bad-about-plastic-straws
@doschicos, thank you. Sorry for the duplicate question.
What’s wrong with wooden stirrers? It is not like they are made of old-growth forest…
No problem.
I wish the USA had a better recycling system. We spent some time last year living in rentals in different parts of Italy and their recycling system is so thorough that the percentage that we didn’t recycle was less than 5%.
In Sweden, recycling of household waste is even higher. 99% according to this article.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/sweden-garbage-waste-recycling-energy/
Not trying to turn this thread political, but guess where the recycling is actually recycled? And who just turned their big fat rear to the world’s recycler? Whatever we recycle in the coming months might be an exercise in futility. I am really mad.