Researchers found low concentrations of so-called forever chemicals in various "eco-friendly" straws, raising doubts about whether they're an appropriate alternative.
I knew I should have avoided the comments... The fact that defence of this bullshit ban still endures (and in the literal face of its failures) frustrates me beyond words.
The plastic straws also contain PFAS anyway so paper still may be marginally better, but it’s definitely money and time that could have been better spent on a different environmental initiative. I’m happy to see plastic bags go, though. Can’t win em all
If I’m not mistaken, manufacturing facilities spray PFAS agents on various conveyor parts to prevent pulp from sticking to them and therefore require stoppage and cleaning. In other words, PFAS reduce the time and money spent on cleaning manufacturing equipment. Congratulations shareholders!
I’m glad someone is thinking of the shareholders. It’s about time we focus on them and not such pesky abstractions like “the environment” or “the future”
It’s sad that we’re making a big damn deal out of - straws. I don’t drink anything out with straws and the only times I do is if I’m at a restaurant and they use plastic.
Yeah, it sucks that straws somehow became the poster child for saving the world. It’s nowhere near our main problem, even with sea plastic (that would be discarded fishing nets) but if we can masochistically try to suck a milkshake through a collapsing, leaking, sticking to my lips, paper straw then I must be doing something good, right…?
This and plastic shopping bags are the perfect poster children - they inconvenience consumers and not shareholders. Look at your average shopping cart and tell me how much plastic is in it. Did we ever address that, or was it totally ignored for the tiny fraction of that plastic that constitutes disposable bags? Disposble bags that have now been replaced by other bags that are dubiously better that we have to buy, and whose normal reuse-case is now other thin plastic bags that we have to also buy.
Meanwhile the enormous amount of packing plastic that is already in the shopping cart before you bag anything is left alone, because presumably doing anything about that would change supply lines, and that would cost money for shareholders. Can’t have that.
Also if you’ve got a straw you almost certainly have a plastic lid that has more plastic in it than the straw did but there isn’t an easy way to fix that. It’s an incredibly thin and meaningless cover for the real problems.
The researchers sampled 39 brands of straws made of paper, bamboo, glass, stainless steel and plastic. Of those, 27 were found to contain PFAS, though the concentrations were low.
Of the straws tested in the study, those made of paper were the most likely to contain PFAS: The chemicals were detected in 18 out of 20 brands. Four out of five bamboo straws sampled contained PFAS, compared to three out of four plastic straws and two out of five glass straws. All five stainless steel straws analyzed were PFAS-free.
I use glass ones personally - tried plastic ones but kept biting them 🤦♂️.
Have you had any issues with rust on your straws? I’ve noticed some stainless steel stuff goes rusty if it’s been left on some other wet steel item for a while, although I have no idea why that happens
This is just feeding the outrage machine to get clicks. If it was a story they’d be citing concentration guidelines and telling you what concentrations were found in the products. It’s not a story, it’s rage bait.
Agreed. If it was “intentionally added” PFAS, it would say that, and that might be a big deal. I read through the article and didn’t see that. Just speculation that it might be. PFAS is everywhere.
I agree 99%. The 1% left is that, honestly, it is shitty that they contain any kind of PFAS to begin with. If PFAS in any kind of concentration are part of the production process, then it just isn’t sustainable in the long run.
But the question is why do we need straws at all. I doubt that back in 1970 anyone would drink a latte macchiato with a straw. I found it strange just 15 years ago. If you fancy straws, you can get one high quality reusable one (steel, bamboo whatever) and carry it with you - I find this proposition much less offensive then expecting me to always carry a huge reusable cup with me. And for the most part you can consume drinks without a straw.
Now, there is people who have disabilities that require them to use a straw. For them, have some in store as a vendor, and hand them out if requested.
But then it doesn’t depend on the level actually. If something toxic has a half life of a billion years then it shouldn’t be used in production, no matter in what amount/at what levels. Cocaine will degrade at some point and also not stay in your system forever so I would argue that there can be a safe level of cocaine in drinking water. (I mean it still shouldn’t be there, but it doesn’t cause trouble on the grander scheme of things.)
(using secretive slightly agitated conspiracy voice) That’s how they getcha man… Cocaine in the water man… it’s in there on purpose… they get you hooked on the coke and to get it you keep drinking the water to get mooooore! EVERYONE THAT EVER DRANK WATER HAS DIED AT SOME POINT??? (walks away mumbling about tin foil hats and mind control)
That’s why I used the word plastic and not “cellophane.” There were and still are companies that use non-biodegradable, non-plant based plastics to package their paper straws. But thank you…? I know you were going for a big internet gotcha moment there.
“All the straw manufacturers should take warning and say, ‘Hey, do we use this stuff?’ Because at the moment, they’re not even asking that question,”
That is kind of concerning!
Strongly recommend hay straws (like, made of “straw”).
They’re better than paper in that they don’t sog up. They’re inconsistent in size but that has never bothered me. A little flimsy, but I stir iced drinks with them all the time.
I do that too. There are plenty of subthreads going arguing straw-use is an accessibility issue, but in my case, I just want them for specific drinks – mostly cocktails.
The head on a Ramos Gin Fizz practically requires a straw to enjoy. Especially as someone with a mustache.
It’s wood pulp, there is almost zero sugar in a sugar cane once they’re done extracting the cane sugar out of it, which is when it can be re-used to do other things.
It’s made of bagasse (sugarcane fibers, basically wood pulp) and binders like PLA and is entirely compostable.
PFAS is everywhere at this point. Unfortunately they’re reeeeeally good at what they’re designed for and they’re cheap. We’ll need viable alternatives so they can be phased out. I think they should be banned from products that don’t really need them like dental floss and hopefully we come up with an enzyme or something that can cheaply break it down in the environment.
Side note, there has been at least one study that shows that donating blood regularly can reduce the amount of PFAS in your blood. This doesn’t solve the problem of the stuff being everywhere but it’s good to know you can remove it from your body over time.
Yep, I think you can donate plasma more often as well. Oneblood will give you giftcards and swag for whole blood, not nearly as good a payout as plasma but it’s also like 15 minutes where my experience with plasma was a couple hours, they did set me up with netflix during the process so I think it’s worth the extra bit of time.
Climate debate over folks. “Kinda neat” trumps destroying the environment every day of the week. If they were just “sorta neat” or “not really neat” we could ban them, but putting a few hundre metric tons of plastics into the waste stream is a reasonable tradeoff when you’re at the level of “kinda neat”.
Me when it’s time to see the dentist. Straws do protect your teeth from a lot of the damage the soda would do. Even the citric acid in diet sodas and other drinks can wear down your enamel. I think you can want to enjoy soda while still trying to keep your teeth attached to your head.
tbh if you’re drinking soda often enough where straws are the reason your teeth don’t fall out, I don’t think the health of your teeth is the biggest concern.
Single use bendy straws were literally invented to help keep bedbound and other disabled people alive. There are also many reasons people can't use different alternatives.
You personally not using something, doesn't mean others don't, and to deny access to a literal lifeline for the sake of 0.003% of the plastics in the ocean (literally a drop in an ocean) because it makes you feel better and requires zero effort or sacrifice (from you), instead of actually acting to resolve the problem (like being anti-capitalist rather than just trying to apply band aids to its symptoms) is not only gross and ableist, but also a colossal counterproductive waste of time.
Single use bendy straws were literally invented to help keep bedbound and other disabled people alive. There are also many reasons people can't use different alternatives.
You personally not using something, doesn't mean others don't, and to deny access to a literal lifeline for the sake of 0.003% of the plastics in the ocean (literally a drop in an ocean) because it makes you feel better and requires zero effort or sacrifice (from you), instead of actually acting to resolve the problem (like being anti-capitalist rather than just trying to apply band aids to its symptoms) is not only gross and ableist, but also a colossal counterproductive waste of time.
It’s possible that we could reduce regular use, yet allow those with accibility issues to continue to use the alternative. This can work in tandem to help address the real problem accumulation of single use plastics. Not using a straw is a valid solution for the majority of use cases.
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