Stainless Steel Straws and More Great Alternatives to Single-Use Plastics

Straws. I have to admit that I own a huge bag of single-use plastic straws. I am one of many who use them daily but never thought about the damage they cause to the environment.

Like many others, I didn’t think twice about their small size. I didn’t add up the number of straws I used in a week, a month, or a year. I hadn’t considered the collective impact of every person like me who uses them daily.

Think about every restaurant meal – coffee stirrers in the morning, straws for lunch and dinner, drink stirrers at the bar. I didn’t multiply those numbers by every restaurant in every city and state across the U.S.

I don’t know those exact figures, though I tried hard to find them. But that’s no excuse to assume that the total number is reasonable.

The 500 Million Straws Claim

People say the “500 million straws a day in the United States” claim is incorrect. They attribute it to a child’s guess for a science project. But is it really that inaccurate? Consider how many just one restaurant distributes in a day. Additionally, how many restaurants are there in the United States? I think 500 million might actually be very accurate.

I don’t have the data to back this up. I’m just taking a realistic look at my straw use and multiplying that by every person in the U.S. who buys a coffee in the morning, grabs a meal on the go for lunch or dinner, or uses them at home. 

The specific number doesn’t really matter. Whatever the number is, it’s too high.

The Real Issue About Straws

Straws are not recyclable due to their size.

I didn’t know that even though straws may be made from recyclable plastic (polypropylene resin ID 5), most recycling plants can’t process them.

According to livegreen.recyclebank.com, “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.”

The number of straws collected in beach clean-ups along U.S. coastlines proves this.

Before I was aware of the damage to the environment that I was contributing to, I realized that continually spending money on a one-time-use product was a waste. It’s true that you can wash and reuse plastic straws. But ah…no.

So I invested in bigger (also plastic) straws that gave me a much less queasy feeling about washing and reusing. I thought that I had done something really good by using these. I even found a way to clean them using fuzzy sticks, before I found actual straw cleaners.

I’ve had them for a few years and, because they are durable plastic, I could theoretically have them forever. 

The Opposition

If you believe, like I did, that straws are an insignificant size, are not widely used, or are recyclable, please consider the above information.

There are some genuine concerns when it comes to plastic drinking straws. Some people need them due to being physically impaired, sensitive teeth, or medications that make them sensitive to metals.

Fortunately, even more straw options are available from several manufacturers. For example, soft silicone straws, large reusable dishwasher-safe plastic straws for shakes and smoothies, bamboo straws, good old-fashioned paper straws, and glass straws are also available. There are also carrying cases and keychain straws that guarantee you’ll have one wherever you go.

The Bigger Picture

Will using stainless steel straws stop plastic straw production in its tracks? No.

Is it actually making a difference? Yes. It is a small step by many today that will lead to significant improvements tomorrow.

The pounds of plastic floating in the ocean didn’t just show up yesterday. So we have to start somewhere.

Congratulations to Seattle for banning plastic straws and utensils! We are on our way to a better future, one small step at a time.