I consider myself a fairly conscious human being, able to make calculated

decisions. I don’t enjoy harming animals, I’m not indifferent to the death of turtles

and I would even go as far as to say I feel a twinge of guilt when I hear the crunch

of accidentally treading on a snail. But like all of us in our fast paced time sensitive

city life, I will without fail take my morning vanilla oat milk iced latte to go.

I will grab the free paper straw, placed in a large pack on the counter conveniently

to my disposal, the necessity I didn’t know I needed but the world was too quick to

decide that just like your average utensil, was required to consume my beverage.

As the coffee starts tasting like soggy paper I am reminded of how my plastic soled

shoes, plastic credit card,plastic phone case, plastic sunglasses and plastic coffee

cup don’t matter because I’ve made the environmentally friendly decision to endure

the taste of soggy cardboard coffee.

​

The hypocrisy cannot be made more obvious.

​

The ‘feel good movement’ of paper straws allows major corporations to hide behind

their bare minimum efforts of combating pollution by keeping us, consumers feeling

good about ourselves whilst pumping out paper straws with 69% forever chemicals

said to take thousands of years to break down and 90% PFAS but with 100%

guarantee of reducing our guilt as consumers. You cannot help but wonder was the

ban on plastic straws an attempt to reduce waste in the first place or was it a

distraction aimed to sway our attention away from their other profit motivated

wasteful practices.

​

What if we go one step further and ask ourselves what’s even the point of the straw

in the first place and why does it have such a hold over our beverage drinking

experience? Plastic straws were initially made for people with disabilities before it

became such a mainstream device. What stops me from enjoying my cuppa sitting

down in a standard porcelain mug or lifting my hand just an inch to take a sip

instead of slurping out of a straw? Our city ‘rat race’ life gives us not a second to

spare so taking on the sit down alternative to enjoying our beverage is a luxury

most of us can’t afford or our weakened attention span simply doesn’t allow. We

must constantly be on the move, stimulated and we seek maximum efficiency in

even the most basic tasks. Drinking coffee is no exception. The straw caters to

such an efficency seeking society where the mere action of lifting your hand up to

your mouth requires too much effort for the average consumer.

​

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Bibliography

ITV News (2023) Paper straws may not be better for the environment than plastic,

study suggests, ITV News. Available at: https://www.itv.com/news/2023-08-

25/paper-straws-may-not-be-better-for-the-environment-than-plastic-study-suggests

Jonsson, A. et al. (2021) ‘An evaluation of alternative biodegradable and reusable

drinking straws as alternatives to single‐ Use Plastic’

, Journal of Food Science,

86(7), pp. 3219–3227. doi:10.1111/1750-3841.15783.

Schultz, G. (2023) Plastic straw bans are not fair to people with disabilities, and

here’s what we can do about it, CreakyJoints. Available at:

https://creakyjoints.org/advocacy/plastic-straw-bans-bad-for-people-with-

disabilities/

Southey, F. (2023) ‘green’ straws raise Red Flags: Pfas ‘forever chemicals’

identified in 90% of paper straws tested in Europe, foodnavigator.com. Available at:

https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2023/08/31/PFAS-forever-chemicals-

identified-in-90-of-paper-straws-tested-in-EuropeJonsson, A. et al. (2021) ‘An evaluation of alternative biodegradable and reusable

drinking straws as alternatives to single‐ Use Plastic’

, Journal of Food Science, 86(7),

pp. 3219–3227. doi:10.1111/1750-3841.15783.

Schultz, G. (2023) Plastic straw bans are not fair to people with disabilities, and here’s

what we can do about it, CreakyJoints. Available at:

https://creakyjoints.org/advocacy/plastic-straw-bans-bad-for-people-with-disabilities/

Southey, F. (2023) ‘green’ straws raise Red Flags: Pfas ‘forever chemicals’ identified

in 90% of paper straws tested in Europe, foodnavigator.com. Available at:

https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/202