'Eco-friendly' straws contain potentially toxic chemicals – posing a threat to people and wildlife
theconversation.com
Paper and bamboo straws contain ‘forever chemicals’ – maybe threatening the health of people and wildlife.
  • reddig33@lemmy.world
    5·
    1 year ago

    Everyone already hates stupid paper straws. The question is whether we can make disposable straws out of materials that don’t have pfas. For example — corn starch plastic, pfas? Bamboo — coated like the paper straws?

    • siliril@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 year ago

      I have reusable bamboo straws and love them. They’re a little thick but work well and clean up good. Never gets soggy like paper!

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      The problem is fast food/restaurants/quick stops.

      I’ve never even thought of using a straw at home. But fast food/quick stops use disposable cups that aren’t structuraly sound without a lid, so you need straws.

      Restaurants give straws to everyone and then throw them away regardless of if they’re used, even tho their reusable glasses don’t need them. So people are just using them out of habit. I’ve heard “the glasses aren’t clean enough” which is ridiculous when you’re eating off plates with silverware that are washed exactly like the cups

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
      42·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • who8mydamnoreos@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        Most straws are not bendy anyway, my brother-in-law who is disabled keeps a pack of the straws he likes on him because he cant rely on the places he goes to have bendable straws. The disabled are not helpless they can take care of themselves without us creating a demand for more garbage.