People often talk about swapping out plastic straws for other materials to help the ocean/fish and the environment, but they also complain about paper straws falling apart easily. Other alternatives that are slightly more sturdy like straws made of straw don’t seem very common.
But do we even need straws? My first reaction was that any liquid can be drunk directly from the vessel it’s in, and straws just add another level of convenience. If we don’t want to use plastic straws and the alternatives mostly suck (actually all straws suck 🤓), why not just ditch straws entirely?
There are people who have disabilities that prevent or make it hard to drink without a straw, for example, they have shaky hands and would spill their drink otherwise.
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This is how we end up paying for straws as medical devices. As soon as you make it a niche item the people who really need it are screwed
It’s a simple metal tube (reusable). Just because it’s niche doesn’t mean it’ll cost a bomb.
A lot of disabled people who need straws have difficulties controlling their muscles, so a metal straw is a good way to break their teeth, the same goes for wood and other hard straws. Paper straws are also unusable for them, as they break too quickly, and silicone straws are too floppy. Plastic straws really are the only suitable option for them.
Agave straws might be a sweet spot - they behave like plastic straws but are biodegradable.
That’s awesome!
BTW, just to make it clear; I’m not saying “Yay plastic, plastic is the only way!”. I am saying that the current alternatives aren’t suitable for all cases.
Personally, as a (mostly) able-bodied person, I carry reusable silicone straws with me.
It will in the USA once insurance companies classify it as a medical device and doctors offices start billing them $500 for a straw they’ll negotiate down to $200 and now we’re paying $40 per straw after insurance
That is unrelated to normal straw usage, though. They can at any time declare that they need “medical straws”, define that only certified companies can provide them, and then demand hundreds of Dollars for them. I would not be surprised if this was already happening somewhere.
Now I hope the people affected by this hoard straws. We live in a weird world.
Straws would still be cheap, but also medical devices should be free anyways
I want to add that the convenience factor they give to non-disabled people really helps the life-necessity factor for disabled people. Economy of scale helps a lot. Someone who needs straws to live can go to any grocery or convenience store and buy dozens or hundreds of the things for dirt cheap because the disabled people aren’t the only ones buying them, and that’s a good thing.
Or, they could buy one reusable metal one to last a lifetime.
That metal straw could end up impaling their brain though.
Yeah, somebody else explained to me that they can only use plastic straws for disabled folk
Aren’t reusable straws difficult to sanitize? I’ve always wondered
No, why would they be? Hot water, same as any other dish
Most come with a little brush to help clean them as well
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Or after you go to the dentist yourself! Granted you can likely survive without drinking room temperature anything because your gums/terth are sore for a bit, but disabled people cannot.
Straws are necessary to some people with mobility issues. It’s important to rember that not everyone can do what you can do.
But that’s a typical strawman argument. The straw ban laws have exception for medical equipement, and unfortunately some place found workaround like paper straw or pasta straw. But an able-bodied adult doesn’t really need a straw to drink, getting one with a drink is even an annoyance.
This is just a typical strawban argument.
That’s not really relevant to the question being asked and the answer you’re replying to though. OP said straws should just stop existing because it’s only a convenience, and this counterpoint was that there are people who NEED straws, not as convenience but as necessity.
Have you ever heard of children?
Bendy straws were originally medical equipment and are still the only way for some people to be able to drink without spilling or having someone spill on them. For instance my husband’s a quad. Without a bendy straw, I have to tip the cup into his mouth without being able to see clearly either the level of the liquid or the angle of the cup to his mouth, especially the far side. He can’t tell me because drinking, nor move his head or hands to signal or correct me. A straight straw is almost impossible because he can’t tilt his head down to drink. With the bendy straws his face is straight and as long as the straw is between his lips he can drink at his own pace. But those rubbery straws are too thick, he can’t suck that hard. And we’ve never found a metal one that’s bent at the right angle. So we’re sticking to plastic, just have to make it up in other areas. Now, why they’re not made with recycled plastic, I don’t know.
Many disabled people are unable to drink without straws.
On social media, many people have responded to claims that people with disabilities need plastic straws by asking what people did before plastic straws were invented. “They aspirated liquid in their lungs, developed pneumonia and died,” says Shaun Bickley, co-chair of the Seattle Commission for People with DisAbilities, a volunteer organization that’s supposed to advise the city council or agencies on disabilities issues.
for some reason I always love those dark answers to „what did people do before X?“
Sometimes we actually help people, improve lifes
edit: typo
Chronically ill person checking in to mention people with my autoimmune disorder died a slow painful death in the past or ate pig thyroid. And people with endometriosis just spent their days in intense agony (some/many still do because current medical treatment doesn’t work for them).
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There’s a couple of reasons straws might be convenient or even necessary:
- You have a disability that causes movement problems like shaking
- Limited neck/shoulder/arm mobility or a swollen lip (The latter makes it hard to get a proper seal)
- You wear lipstick or other makeup that could get washed away
- Your edibles were too strong
- You can build containers that don’t spill when they fall over
(Edit: Add text at the beginning instead of just throwing a list out there)
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Your edibles were too strong
A mistake easily avoidable. This only happens if you say “these edibles ain’t shit” 45 minutes after taking them.
Australia checking in…
I remember being taught in school to always use straws when you’re outside so you don’t swallow a bee or spider that’s fallen into your drink.
This is probably more of a baseless anxiety than an actual risk though I guess. I guess aluminium cans are problematic because you can’t see what’s in your drink. Bees do always stop to investigate sweet drinks so yeah I guess a sweet drink in a can might be an actual risk without a straw.
When I was a kid, a wasp went into my uncle’s beer can at a backyard BBQ. My uncle didn’t notice and when he took a drink he swallowed the wasp. It stung him 5 times on the inside of his throat and esophagus, and he had to be rushed to the hospital because his neck was swelling up. He wasn’t allergic or anything; I guess that can just happen if you are literally stung from the inside. He survived, but it was a very close call, according to the doctor.
Holy shit. 5 times!?
I know a person that have her mouth stung that way. I’m not from Australia, by the way, and it’s not common to teach this around here.
Anyway, at the country areas around here it’s common to teach people to use straws with cans because when cans are stored badly, touching them with your mouth can transmit diseases.
A family friend was sent to the hospital because, when at a church yard sale, he left his can of Sprite unattended and a bee got into it. When he picked it back up and drank from it he drank the bee, too, and it stung him in the throat.
So it’s probably not a common issue but I can confirm it’s happened at least once. I’m American, we don’t really have the spider problem in the same way. Thank god, I hate spiders.
I had a teacher in elementary school who swallowed a bee this way.
We had snap on caps that would go over cans so we could close them when we weren’t drinking out of them.
I mean, the safest way to swallow a bee or spider would probably be after it drowned. So that just makes no sense at all.
Hmm, insects don’t really down the same way mammals do. A layer of air gets trapped against their thorax, some spiders use this to hunt under water IIRC.
Other commenters have replied with accounts of this happening.
They are arachnids not insects, but fair point.
Diving-bell spiders are very specialised and rare spiders, the vast majority doesn’t have that ability.
I mean you shouldn’t swallow them, but I don’t think straws are needed to prevent that.
The majority of arachnids don’t hunt under water, but they also don’t drown easily. I’ve seen huntsman spiders float on water like it’s no big deal.
Oh yes, a few of them can walk on water, fishing spiders even catch small fish through the surface. But that requires careful manipulation of surface tension. But it seems rather unlikey a spider would fall or slip into a drink and land perfecly on the surface. Once they break through the surface tension it works against them and even fishing spiders can struggle to get out again. Most spiders will drown within a few minutes once submerged when there is nothing to climb out on. The straw might actually safe them in that case!
I’d still say it’s a rather minor risk and just checking your drink before taking a sip is probably simpler then using a straw. I ususally just put a coaster on my glass when outside during the summer.
For almost everyone, yes. But they have their purpose.
The problem is not straws but the single use, non recyclable plastic ones. They’re a convenience and not a necessity. Same goes for cutlery, plates, cups, bags, wrappings etc.
There are alternatives like durable plastic ones that you can reuse, metal or paper if you want single use straws.
They work well in moving vehicles but beyond that we could ditch them entirely. Edit. I should have said for most purposes. They do work well for kids or someone injured, hospitals etc.
Straws are a strawman argument to begin. That plastic drink cup has about 50 times the plastic of your typical straw.
They also work well for little kids. Drinking from the rim of a cup is harder for wee tots than sipping through a straw.
I’m not saying this makes them a life essential, just noting one more case where they really make sense.
They stop your lipstick smudging, too.
In the rare event i drink soda, i sometimes use a straw because it feels like it doesn’t affect all my teeth as much. Without a straw, it feels like the soda reaches all teeth and molars, while a straw directs it more locally. I once bought some stainless steel straws.
I cringe in horror at the idea of children using stainless steal straws. There’s so much potential for horrible accidents.
Good thing you mentioned this. I agree, i wouldn’t give these to children.
This is actually something my dentist recommended as it helps reduce the amount of acid and sugar from the soda from saturating your teeth.
Exactly what i meant! I don’t drink any sugary substances, but the acid is detrimental to one’s teeth.
Some places have laws against drinking from a cup without a straw while driving because the cup can block the driver’s view.
Technically all inventions are “unnecessary but convenient.” Our ancestors got by just fine without fire or tools or clothes for much much longer than we’ve been inventing tools and using them.
Don’t get me wrong, today’s humans would almost certainly die out without our tools because we’ve adapted so heavily to having them (especially fire and clothing).
*For varying definitions of “just fine”.
Our ancestors didn’t get by without fire, if you mean ancestors as in members of our species.
We’re human because fire allowed us to grow our brains larger than typically possible. Protohumans discovered how to use fire long before we existed.
We wouldn’t die without straws.
In Germany plastic straws are forbidden these days. There’s straws made of metal or wood still. Can’t comment on the larger question tho. I’ve never used straws to begin with.
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Huh, neat. I’ve heard of pasta straws in private use but an Italian restaurant, that’s cool. Yeah wooden and metal straws get cleaned. Tho wooden straws would eventually be burned I assume. And metal maybe remelted?
aside from the previously mentioned uses for people with disabilities, i’d also mention straws can be very helpful for young children first learning to become independent. boba would be pretty difficult to drink, too.
I heard an american the other day talking about large noodles being used as straws, I don’t know if this was pasta or whatever but I thought that was insteresting
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