You order your regular ⅔ caff triple ristretto affogato venti, 2 scoop matcha, add banana, double blended, with whip, caramel drizzle, salted caramel topping, soy milk, vanilla bean frappuccino. Heading over to the straws contained in a plastic heavy duty container, you notice they are a bit different than usual, but you don’t mind. You rip off the straw’s wrapper, excited to indulge in your coffee. You finally plunge the straw into your plastic cup to take that long awaited sip. A hint of a weird, bland, yet chemically sweet taste hits you. You don’t mind though, as you continue taking to sip. However, about a quarter of the way to completing the drink, you get the most unpleasant texture in your mouth.
“Is that… paper?”
Suddenly, you step back from this now suspicious straw. Taking a quick look, you are met with the crying face of all things good in the world. It is crying to you. Begging for you to stop and let this unseen offense be known to the world.
Besides making your drink abysmal, paper straws also contain chemicals that can leach into your delicious frappuccino. Smart Belgian scientists found that 90% of popular paper straw brands have long-lasting chemicals in them, especially PFA. If you’re considering turning to plastic straws, 75% of plastic straws were found to have forever chemicals in them, so that’s not a great idea either . PFAs, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, can stay in the body for nearly a decade without breaking down. These chemicals are usually added to make the paper straws more water repellent, great job folks! These useless chemicals can cause everything from liver and kidney diseases, cancer, and even lowering sperm count. What’s even worse, there is no medical way to remove them from your body. Once you get the carcinogen in your body, you’re stuck with them, so think twice before using paper straws.
Not only are the chemicals in the straws harmful to your precious body, they are also a lose-lose for both the business and the environment. For starters, paper straws are made of trees. Trees are great at acting as a carbon sink, as you already learned from your Biology class. The need for these raw materials ends up worsening today’s issues of deforestation and habitat damage. The production of paper straws uses up to 10% more energy and 4 times as much water to create than plastic straws. Moreover, the bloated weight and volume notably increases the amount of waste going to landfills after getting tossed. In fact, the disposal of paper products results in a 3-7 times increase in greenhouse gas emissions in contrast to plastic landfill counterparts. Large quantities of paper landfills have even been linked to acid rain and damage to lake ecosystems. Not only that, but paper straws cost up to 5 times more to both consumers and manufacturers. So, you can rest easy using a plastic straw knowing you didn’t contribute to some stuck up corporate thief trying to make themselves feel better.
Usually, there is a happy and efficient way to fix these issues. The issues in simple terms are: paper straws are useless and horrible to use. However, this does not mean we support the use of plastic straws in any capacity. Although many may believe that metal straws would be the sole solution to this problem, the truth is that a single metal straw produces as much carbon emissions as the production of 150 plastic straws. Personally, I cannot remember using a straw within the past month. Unless you are bringing these rickety pieces of metal everywhere you go, they would be useless for everyone involved.
And just overall, straws are bad in general. Although they are beneficial to those who have motor disabilities or children, if you don’t have those necessities, you could experience negative effects such as bloating, lip wrinkles, cavities, as well as teeth stains. The only other benefit of using a straw is when using them to drink carbonated beverages, as it decreases the amount of erosion the drinks would have on your teeth. However, this is quite literally the most menial thing straws benefit you with. If you drink sodas every day, it will not be the teeth erosions that you need to be worried about.
At this point, you probably have predicted the solution to this “crisis,” which is to use no straw at all. However, this cannot be where we end the scrutiny for bettering our environment. Not only should you refrain from using straws in general, but also use reusable drinking containers. Friends Academy encourages and does a great job at this. Very rarely will you see a plastic bottle. Most of the time, students and teachers use reusable bottles. This is only one step in the right direction.
In the cafeteria, however, lots of things go against the sustainability code, such as the use of plastic cups, lids, and utensils. Now, you may be thinking of just replacing them for compostable alternatives. If you thought that, have you learned absolutely nothing from this article? Paper products are just as damaging as plastic products if disposed of incorrectly. Very often you will see non-recyclables in the recycling bin. The only realistic solution to this problem is for you to try your best to not use more than necessary in any product whatsoever. Try to not use multiple cups at once, try to recycle correctly, and most importantly, try to never use straws again.
