I will say that my experience with paper straws has been pretty disappointing. They’re…usable, but a considerably-worse experience if you’re nursing a drink all day. They get soggy and tend to collapse. They get started on biodegrading a lot more-quickly than I’d like.
I think that maybe a better answer than “use paper” is “use plastic that biodegrades in a shorter period of time than existing plastic straws”.
Like, I don’t really care about the wall thickness of my straw. I don’t need a lot of flexibility. I’m okay with paying more for straws, as they’re pretty cheap. Straws that are shipped in paper wrappers, as is generally the case here in restaurants, don’t need UV light resistance. I’d think that somewhere out there, there’s a plastic that trades off some of those properties to be long-term biodegradable.
I will say that my experience with paper straws has been pretty disappointing. They’re…usable, but a considerably-worse experience if you’re nursing a drink all day. They get soggy and tend to collapse. They get started on biodegrading a lot more-quickly than I’d like.
I think that maybe a better answer than “use paper” is “use plastic that biodegrades in a shorter period of time than existing plastic straws”.
Like, I don’t really care about the wall thickness of my straw. I don’t need a lot of flexibility. I’m okay with paying more for straws, as they’re pretty cheap. Straws that are shipped in paper wrappers, as is generally the case here in restaurants, don’t need UV light resistance. I’d think that somewhere out there, there’s a plastic that trades off some of those properties to be long-term biodegradable.
Maybe not straws at all. I never use them, I don’t get the point.
But if I did, I would just have one on hand. They have collapsable metal ones.
But yes, bamboo straws last longer than paper, are disposable, and aren’t plastic.