Straws suck. Why are they still everywhere?
Human desire to optimize drinking efficiency is nothing new.
The first straws that we know of were invented by the Egyptians as a way to keep the slimy sediment in the beers from reaching their mouths. Some wealthy Egyptians even used gold straws! Meanwhile, the plebeians used reeds, which sucked (but not well).
A few thousand years later, frustrated by the mediocrity of reed straws, an American man named Marvin C. Stone invented the paper straw. It quickly became a big hit among the drinkers of his day (1888) and made him a very rich man.
80 years later, we “upgraded” to the plastic straw. How novel, that one could see the liquid rising within! How effective and efficient this liquid delivery system was, with no chance of paper pulp surprising the enjoyer!
Fast forward to 2018:
The average American uses 1.6 plastic straws per day.
Each straw gets exactly one use before getting tossed, because plastic straws are hard to wash and reusing unwashed straws is kind of yucky.
Plastic drinking straws do not biodegrade in the environment. Each of the 182,500,000,000 straws used by Americans each year ends up in the waste stream — including our oceans and beaches — and stays there, forever.
This is hardly a new concept. There are whole nonprofits dedicated to getting rid of plastic straws. Consumers are increasingly aware and concerned, and environmentally sustainable straws are already on the market and available for restaurants to purchase. Some businesses have made changes: Pizza Express, a chain in the U.K., removed plastic straws from its 350 locations after receiving a letter penned by a five year old child expressing her concern.
So — if everyone cares so much, why is it that 99% of straws sold in the US are still plastic straws?
We’re interested in finding the answers to that question, because it seems like things should have changed more by now than they have. The more we dove into it, the more we realized how much misinformation is out there.
Myth #1: Let’s switch to bioplastic; that will make the customers happy!
Fact: Bioplastic “compostable” straws are made of corn and look like plastic. Unfortunately, they act pretty much like plastic, too.
While bioplastics do degrade faster than plastic, most need high temperature industrial composting facilities to break down and very few cities have the infrastructure needed to deal with them. As a result, bioplastics often end up in landfills where, deprived of oxygen, they may release methane, a greenhouse gas 23x more potent than carbon dioxide.
When bioplastics are not discarded properly, they can contaminate batches of recycled plastic, causing an entire lot to be rejected and end up in the landfill.
So, waste management companies like Recology see bioplastics as plastics — they can’t tell the difference! Interestingly, neither can customers. If a business switches to bioplastic straws, chances are the the customer won’t even notice.
Here’s an example: recently, a MoneyVoice user (MoVo) provided the following feedback at West of Pecos, a restaurant in the Mission District of San Francisco:
Please stop using straws in your margaritas
I’m concerned about single-use plastic, especially its effect on our oceans and wildlife. I love your margaritas, but would love them even more if they didn’t get served with straws. Could you at least stop giving them out by default, and they could still be available if people request them? Thank you for your consideration!
by karakallen
Kara didn’t know that West of Pecos had already made a switch to compostable bioplastic straws, because they look so similar.
Myth #2: Compostable straws are too expensive for food & beverage businesses, which operate on tight margins.
Fact: Pagan Idol, a bar in San Francisco, saved $900 a month on their waste management bill after switching to paper straws because of diversion discounts. For businesses in areas where there are no discounts available, switching to compostable can still save money if they only provide straws upon request. Most customers don’t *need* straws — Aardvark®, a paper straw company, found that companies that offer straws by request only reduce straw consumption by 40%.
Myth #3: Businesses think customers don’t care about straws, and customers think businesses don’t care.
Fact: There has never been a smooth way for most brick-and-mortar businesses to easily have an open, two-way, online communication channel with customers. A lot of information gets lost without one!
MoneyVoice has created a platform that makes this communication possible. Because of Kara’s feedback, West of Pecos decided to dig deeper and sent her this response on MoneyVoice:
Thank you so much for this great feedback! Sustainability is very important to us and we have already considered how we can be helpful with this issue. We previously started using straws made from compostable bioplastics. But this feedback has caused us to look closer at this. We discussed this issue with some waste management experts. They informed us that our local Recology compost facility can’t actually tell the difference between “compostable” straws and regular plastic straws, so they pull them out and throw them into the landfill! This seems completely ridiculous and unacceptable. Moving forward, we commit to:
1. Stop including straws in every drink by default!
2. Using paper straws when a customer requests one and in the couple of drinks we serve that require them.
Paper straws are actually compostable and are a much better choice than bioplastics. Beyond that, we’re excited to help move our society away from unnecessary waste. We do expect that this may be disappointing to some customers who like plastic straws, but we also believe that our drinks are just as delicious without them, and we thank you for supporting us in this decision! We intend to continue exploring how we can adapt our offerings, including scanning our entire inventory to look for other ways we can be more sustainable, not only with our dry goods but with our perishables as well. Thanks again!
How many customers assume that businesses don’t care about sustainability? How do customers find out if a business has made a change that aligns with their values?
How many restaurants out there want to become more sustainable, but don’t know what options exist? How many assume that their customers will revolt if they don’t automatically offer straws? How many just don’t bother looking into alternatives, because there’s no pressure on them to do so?
How many more businesses like West of Pecos would make this change if they knew how much their customers cared?
These are questions we’re interested in asking, because we think that the ability of customers and businesses to have conversations about what matters is integral to expediting the shift from plastic to sustainable products.
These conversations are happening on MoneyVoice, but we want them to happen live in the community, too. We’re hosting an event at West of Pecos May 9th with a panel of experts from advocacy groups and local businesses, including the Surfrider Foundation, The Story of Stuff, GreenBiz, The Plastic Pollution Coalition, and the City of San Francisco. Come join the conversation!
