Reducing Use of Plastic Disposable Straws Good for the Environment
Why would an urban blog ask about personal use of straws? It’s obvious to some of you, but this should help the rest of you.
Americans use 500 million drinking straws every day. To understand just how many straws 500 million really is, this would fill over 125 school buses with straws every day. That’s 46,400 school buses every year!
Americans use these disposable utensils at an average rate of 1.6 straws per person per day. Based on national averages, this equates to each person in the U.S. using about 38,000 straws between the ages of 5 and 65.i Although straws are relatively small, that amount of waste really adds up! (National Park Service: The Be Straw Free Campaign)
Wow — that is a lot of straws!
The only times I use a straw are when I’m drinking a shake/malt — which isn’t very often. Unfortunately, I often forget to tell my server “no straw” when ordering water. I’ll remove it, but at that point it is headed to a landfill. Some restaurants use wrapped straws which allows me to leave it unused. I hope they’re not discarded when the table is cleared. I’d like to work with someone to develop a program to encourage restaurants to only give out straws when requested or necessary (shake/malt)
Some people use straws because they worry about sugary drinks hitting their teeth or staining. Straws only help if you get the straw past your teeth.
Most restaurants use plastic or glass for drinks, neither of which need a straw. Even fast food cups don’t require a straw — except to go.
Further reading:
- Be Straw Free campaign, started in 2011 by a 9-year old (video)
- Skip the Straw
- The Last Plastic Straw
Here are the results from the Sunday Poll:
Q: When eating out, do you use a plastic straw to drink your beverage?
- Always 13 [27.08%]
- Sometimes 14 [29.17%]
- Rarely 14 [29.17%]
- Never 6 [12.5%]
- Unsure/No Opinion 1 [2.08%]
I’d challenge those who said “always” and “sometimes” to try reducing their use.
Some ideas I have:
- Printable information to leave at restaurants about reducing straw use/waste
- Database of restaurants and their straw polices
I’m also planning to order wide stainless steel straws for the next time we go for a shake/malt.
— Steve Patterson
One reason restaurants serve straws is that it keeps women’s lips (and their lipstick) off of the glasses (making it easier to clean the glasses, afterwards). Plus, many patrons are wary of germs, and if you observe how many times servers touch patron’s glasses, at or near the rim, you might think differently . . .
In my research on straws I found nothing on either of your claims. I did find more restaurants instituting a “straws upon request” policy: http://www.eater.com/2013/7/31/6393479/mario-batali-to-institute-straws-upon-request-policy
“Straws Upon Request” is a good idea. And, IMO, JZ71’s “claims” do make sense, whether or not they’re previously documented. (But now they are!) In my youth, I worked in a restaurant for a short time, when I thought I wanted nothing more to do with goat farming and sod farming. And so I know what can–and does– go on behind the scenes in a restaurant. Touching the glasses is the least offensive act that a restaurant employee can commit, but it happens all the time, and “germ-a-haulics want nothing to do with it. Lipstick on the glasses is disgusting and is often difficult to remove in the first wash, even in a heavy-duty HOBART dishwasher. While I don’t wear lipstick and I’ve gotten over worrying about germs, I still don’t use straws in restaurants because I think it looks a bit hoosier for an adult to use a straw in public and, IMO, use of a straw in public is dining behavior that one would like to never see even in a juvenile.
In sit-down restaurants, straws mostly come individually wrapped – if you don’t use yours, odds are that it will be passed on to other, future customers. But where straws do get used, frequently, is for to-go fountain drinks, from fast-food and gas stations like Quik Trip. And people do that for the simple reason that it minimizes spills while driving. But if you really want to “do something” about landfill waste, quit ordering online! One corrugated cardboard box, even smashed flat, takes up way more space than even several dozen straws!
I decided to do this poll after going to a popular sit-down restaurant that included straw in my water. Whether I used it or not — it was headed for s landfill. Unwrapped straws are cheaper than wrapped ones.
This is why I’d like to do a database to know which straw policy is more common.
If you really want to worry about unnecessary shit headed to the landfills, how about looking at the “real” shit – disposable diapers, used kitty litter and dog poop, wrapped neatly in used shopping bags (from people walking their dogs and being good citizens and picking up after their fur babies)! Add in the incredible amount of waste that both school cafeterias and fast food restaurants generate, along with all the empties that don’t make it back to A-B (and every other beverage producer), and there are far bigger issues (and items), literally, than soda straws filling up our landfills.
There are always bigger issues out there. The point is straws are low-hanging fruit that should be easy to address. With so many used daily they find their way into streams and eventually thr ocean.
A commenter on Favebook suggested straw use in St. Louis is higher than where he came from — Boulder CO. This could be another example of the “that’s hoe we’ve always done it” mentality here.
Seriously? Discussing the optional use of plastic straws? What’s next? Discussing the optional use of drink lids, plastic wrap, and clean laundry?
Clean laundry is important–moreso than drink lids and plastic wrap.
In the 11+ years of this blog I’ve often posted about reducing waste. Landfills are an urban problem that needs to be discussed and addressed.
I wonder how much plastic waste goes into landfills because people get sick from unsanitary conditions that could have been prevented with the use of disposable plastic items, such as straws. Never mind the human misery and suffering. For each bag of trash we put out, three times as much goes into the blue bin and an equal amount goes into our green cart. If that’s my vice and the price to pay for sanitation, I’ll carry that green guilt.
I use only 3-4 straws per year and have never gotten sick as a result.
Do you wonder enough to research how many people get sick from drinking beverages without using a straw, or are you just trying to throw stuff at a wall to see what sticks?
Thanks for posting about this seemingly-silly topic, Steve. There is value in talking about it!
Coming from the Chamber of Commerce / neighborhood development side, this is one of those obscure causes that can set your ‘hood apart from the rest, just by bringing attention to it. If I’m running a merchants association in St. Louis, it’s worth the time/effort to educate my restaurant members and get them to sign a straws-by-request pledge.
And going to the larger neighborhood support/development realm, or the aldermanic realm, if I’m running one of those, maybe I hand out branded silly-straws (!) at events or coordinate a walk-around team to deliver them to mailboxes. Sure, most people aren’t going to carry their own personal straw around when they go out for dinner, but it’s an easy slam-dunk for press coverage and a simple sustainability initiative.
Hmm, think I just figured out my next project here in Old Town… 🙂
It doesn’t have to be centered around hippy-dippy “save our planet” language either (that’s a turn-off for some). Personally, I’m sick of megabus-ing down to STL and having my first view — and that of the other riders/drivers on I-55 — of the City occur as we navigate around a massive landfill!
Yes, there are many ways to approach this issue. A restaurant owner might look at reducing his/her annual costs for straws, waste removal; marketing as being green-friendly, etc.
There’s lots of upside to a straw upon request policy — with very little downside.