'Eco-friendly' paper and bamboo straws contain PFAS chemicals, study finds
Amarok@kbin.social to 
nbcnews.com
Researchers found low concentrations of so-called forever chemicals in various "eco-friendly" straws, raising doubts about whether they're an appropriate alternative.
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To be fair, drinks with ice in them are still miles easier to drink with a straw.
No doubt. But something with a smaller hole in it, like the newer Starbucks (I’m sorry I hate using them as an example) cold cups works fine with ice too. Hell, something shaped like the top of a soda can would do it, no more difficult to make than the straw accepting lids, and then no straws.
Those stsrbucks cups are fairly thick, like more than the amount of plastic in a straw thick. Is that really better overall?
Did you read what I said? I said I hate using Starbucks as an example. It just happened to be the first thing that came to mind, that everyone would know what I was talking about. Yes, Starbucks sucks, and so do their plastic products, BUT as I said, that STYLE is what I was talking about. In fact, I said something more like the top of a soda can would be good.
The style requires thicker plastic.
Not really. Everyone seems to forget we used to make things out of shit other than plastic for some reason.
They’re not difficult to make, but they do require more plastic. Probably about the same amount of additional plastic as a straw, really. It’s funny to me when people only consider part of the equation and not the whole thing.
As far as I’m concerned, plastic lids/cups should go away too. I’m simply pointing out that straws are useless, and if anyone cared enough, it would be pretty simple to resolve the straw issue.
Calling straws useless is a bit much. They’re usually excessive, but not useless. Ask your grandmother who can no longer drink from a glass properly. Or a quadriplegic.
There’s nuance in everything, my friend. You’d serve the world better to acknowledge it rather than speak in absolutes.
so, people who existed before the advent of the plastic straw just all died of dehydration? GTFO of here with that shit.
Yes, straws are convenient, and can be helpful to people with certain disabilities. However, that's a small subset of the population, and they can use reuasble straws, if they need them. Plastic/disposable straws are useless.
This isn’t even a fair argument. The subset of people I refer to who benefit from straws would have had a whole host of different things working against them pre-straws. Sort of a silly strawman because that’s not my point. I honestly think you just forgot to qualify a previous statement by emphasizing that you think plastic straws are useless and not all straws are useless. I was responding to your blanket statement that straws are useless.
I agree that disposable straws are useless, no disagreement there. It’s why I own metal ones. I disagree that straws themselves are useless. They are useful.
This comment thread is about disposable/plastic straws. I have been talking about getting rid of plastic/disposable straws in every comment. I never implied I was talking about reusable. I didn’t know I needed to be so pedantic.
Jesus man, ok. Let’s get pedantic about this. I’m sick, I’ve got time.
Parent comment of this thread is:
So, on the table are both forms of straws. In fact, the immediate response to the parent comment leads with
A few comments later you say
To which I call you out and point out that they do, in fact, have a use. Instead of just conceding that they do have a use for a subset of the population, and aren’t totally useless, you pivot to disposable.
In context of this conversation, you absolutely need to qualify if you are talking about all straws or just disposable straws. That’s literally the conversation being had. You just seem to not like that someone pointed out a flaw to your logic. It’s fine to have someone offer different perspectives that cause you to refine your position. Nothing wrong with that. That was my whole point about acknowledging nuance.
You just replaced a straw with a lid.
cups already had lids
Not in the restaurants where straws are used.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they already have plastic lids on them, which are bad, but no extra with my suggestion.
If it's in a paper/plastic cup you can pop the lid off and squeeze the cup to make a pitcher-like shape at the rim. Keeps the ice in and makes for easy drinking. I don't see why we can't just make all disposable lids like coffee cups, honestly. They even make ones that close to avoid spilling
I just bought like a dozen metal straws that are in rotation. Also, coffee cup lids require slightly more plastic to mold. You’re not really saving too much with that trade-off when you think about it. Metal straws work great.
I have some metal straws I keep in my car, I was speaking more to people who don't have or use them or forgot them and don't want to use a disposable straw. I agree that metal straws are the way to go. We honestly need to normalize and allow people to bring their own bottles/cups/whathaveyou into restaurants over disposable products. They should just charge a flat rate for beverages and call it a day. The profit margins on drinks are absurd so the restaurant will still be making plenty of money even if someone brings one of those huge 64 oz bottles in. They could even rig soda fountains to dispense pre-portioned amounts so that the restaurant maintains it's margins. That tech has been around for ages, I'm sure it would be easy to retrofit fountains that dont already have it