My teeth make pretty good retainers. It seems like a weird nostalgia thing. There must be far more pop consumed in a bottle than in a fast food cup, and I’ve never seen anyone put a straw in a bottle (except on tv).
In some countries canned drinks are known to be unsanitary. Rodents would pee on cans and someone would rinse/wash the top (hopefully). You’d buy a can and get a straw because they don’t scrub the little notch. You’d see yellow.
Or you know, food grade stainless steel straws. No bad chemicals, doesn’t turn to mush (unless exposed to temperatures of 1,400 to 1,530 °C) and fully recyclable. Some people say they are hard to wash but ive never had a problem i just stick em vertical into the silverware holder of my dishwasher and it’s always gotten all the way through the straw clean.
They are cheap to produce as well. Not plastic cheap maybe but businesses could easily replace plastic straws with them without going bankrupt or anything. Easy model is just have em as an optional extra so once people already have 8 they can just use their own lol
I usually just keep them in the center console of my car the ones I bought came with a little nice bamboo bag thing to keep them in. So I only keep them in my pocket when I know I’m going to use them and I haven’t found them to be particularly annoying in the pocket personally could always just hang the bag off a belt loop if it really bothered me though
Yeah, silicone is in a weird spot where it’s kinda a plastic and kinda rubber.
But that’s less important because they aren’t single use. You’re going to use them time and again.
Same reason I never felt bad about buying the “single use” plastic grocery bags from Aldi that they’ve discontinued - I still have ones from my first visit to an Aldi that I continue to reuse.
Despite very limited usage, metal straws have caused major injuries including fatalities. Turns out having a metal stick pointed at all sorts of sensitive soft tissue is a risk.
Meanwhile, if using your own straw with a restaurants disposable cup, hardly helps since the cup is still being waste. If using it with reusable cups, it won’t save you from any sanitation issues, since the drink is right in contact with the container. It may be useful for sanitation reasons with a can, but again, the can is disposable. Even if you recycle it, the coating on the inside and the paint on the outside probably are about as much as the plastic straw you spared.
Well, no, just I’m personally apprehensive. I can’t find a story about someone getting killed while using a fork, I can find that about metal straws. I’d personally favor just drinking straight from a cup with my mouth, or a reusable flexible straw if the beverage were something like a milkshake.
Don’t forget about reporting bias. You’re more likely to find stories about Metal straw deaths because metal straws are not common. So when it does happen it’s considered news, just like how you’re going to see reports about almost every single EV fire and yet hundreds of cars Catch Fire every day and you almost never hear about that. Hell you’ve probably driven by a standard gasoline engine fire more than once in your life and thought very little of it
I was recently served a long macaroni as a straw in a restaurant. It was honestly amazing how well it worked! At no point it was mushy and there’s nothing in it that I wouldn’t eat with my pasta dish anyway.
They are good for some drinks but not great for others in my experience. They do get soggy after a few hours and start to dissolve a bit into the drink so if you use them at home and refill a few times over an evening they aren’t great. They also react with some fizzy drinks and cause them to bubble over.
Also fuck bamboo straws and other paper straws filled with PFAS. just use a normal straw or none at all
Maybe beverages could be served in containers that don’t require a straw. I wouldn’t mind being served a can or a bottle instead a cardboard cup.
The main issue is drinks with ice. But maybe we could add a retainer on top of the glass to hold the ice so we can sip directly from the cup.
My teeth make pretty good retainers. It seems like a weird nostalgia thing. There must be far more pop consumed in a bottle than in a fast food cup, and I’ve never seen anyone put a straw in a bottle (except on tv).
The cold is a bit too much on my teeth unfortunately.
Weirdly, in south eat Asia they often give you straws in bottles. I don’t know why.
That’s true in my experience in SEA too, but it felt like a status thing.
They used to do straws in glass bottles, back when glass bottles for soda were a big thing. Maybe it’s a sanitary thing?
It was sold as reducing cavities, but really just for money.
In some countries canned drinks are known to be unsanitary. Rodents would pee on cans and someone would rinse/wash the top (hopefully). You’d buy a can and get a straw because they don’t scrub the little notch. You’d see yellow.
EVERYONE uses straws for health reasons.
https://www.thekitchn.com/sanitizing-cans-infectious-disease-23058657
Just sip directly. Why does ice present a challenge?
Or you know, food grade stainless steel straws. No bad chemicals, doesn’t turn to mush (unless exposed to temperatures of 1,400 to 1,530 °C) and fully recyclable. Some people say they are hard to wash but ive never had a problem i just stick em vertical into the silverware holder of my dishwasher and it’s always gotten all the way through the straw clean.
They are cheap to produce as well. Not plastic cheap maybe but businesses could easily replace plastic straws with them without going bankrupt or anything. Easy model is just have em as an optional extra so once people already have 8 they can just use their own lol
Well, that rules out drinking McDonald’s coffee with one then.
Hey! I’m old enough to get that reference!
I think id prefer a glass straw to metal, but i get thats not something fast food could do easily.
Main issue with that is shipping, of course the government could give them subsidies to cut the costs
What’s the day to day with a metal straw like?
At home it’s simple but going to the mall with a metal straw in my pocket sounds uncomfortable
Just look at Every Day Carry (EDC) channels on Youtube and you will feel like a small pocket straw is fine.
I usually just keep them in the center console of my car the ones I bought came with a little nice bamboo bag thing to keep them in. So I only keep them in my pocket when I know I’m going to use them and I haven’t found them to be particularly annoying in the pocket personally could always just hang the bag off a belt loop if it really bothered me though
I use my own metal straw and it works great
We have those at home too and they’re the only straws I use. They just feel premium in a way.
There is a learning curve with metal straws, if you only used plastic / paper. I hit my teeth so often with the metal one when I first got it.
Ours have little silicone bits on the end to use as a mouthpiece to prevent that. We also have some silicone straws which work fine.
Silicone is a type of plastic (kind of)
One piece of silicon that will last thousands of uses vs entire straw of single use plastic each time.
Yeah, you’re definitely correct that it’s better than single use plastics, but silicone has the potential to leach into liquids.
And to be clear, single use plastic straws have more of a risk of leaching than silicone. Stainless steel does not have this risk.
Yeah, silicone is in a weird spot where it’s kinda a plastic and kinda rubber.
But that’s less important because they aren’t single use. You’re going to use them time and again.
Same reason I never felt bad about buying the “single use” plastic grocery bags from Aldi that they’ve discontinued - I still have ones from my first visit to an Aldi that I continue to reuse.
Sounds like Germ City to me tbh. Straws are bad enough already without nooks and crannies
Idk about theirs, but my silicone bits are removable. You take them off before you wash them.
Despite very limited usage, metal straws have caused major injuries including fatalities. Turns out having a metal stick pointed at all sorts of sensitive soft tissue is a risk.
Meanwhile, if using your own straw with a restaurants disposable cup, hardly helps since the cup is still being waste. If using it with reusable cups, it won’t save you from any sanitation issues, since the drink is right in contact with the container. It may be useful for sanitation reasons with a can, but again, the can is disposable. Even if you recycle it, the coating on the inside and the paint on the outside probably are about as much as the plastic straw you spared.
What about forks?
Either is a risk if actively walking. Straw is more likely to be used on the move. I get self conscious about even carrying forks or knives on stairs.
So the risk is about as high as holding a fork while walking, which is pretty much negligible?
Well, no, just I’m personally apprehensive. I can’t find a story about someone getting killed while using a fork, I can find that about metal straws. I’d personally favor just drinking straight from a cup with my mouth, or a reusable flexible straw if the beverage were something like a milkshake.
Don’t forget about reporting bias. You’re more likely to find stories about Metal straw deaths because metal straws are not common. So when it does happen it’s considered news, just like how you’re going to see reports about almost every single EV fire and yet hundreds of cars Catch Fire every day and you almost never hear about that. Hell you’ve probably driven by a standard gasoline engine fire more than once in your life and thought very little of it
I was recently served a long macaroni as a straw in a restaurant. It was honestly amazing how well it worked! At no point it was mushy and there’s nothing in it that I wouldn’t eat with my pasta dish anyway.
They are good for some drinks but not great for others in my experience. They do get soggy after a few hours and start to dissolve a bit into the drink so if you use them at home and refill a few times over an evening they aren’t great. They also react with some fizzy drinks and cause them to bubble over.