Yeah, I don't regularly use straws, but when I do, I just need/"need" a straw and really hate having an inferior straw. For whatever reason, I just really hate stainless steel straws.
Not only are there much bigger priorities, but it's also ridiculous in some forms, and that creates another type of distraction from what actually matters.
For me personally I disagree with the idea that straw waste and biodegradability doesn’t matter. This overemphasis of “priorities” is a mistaken philosophy.
Reduction of straw use matters just like the same as the reduction of any type of disposable use. Anything produced with the sole purpose of being discarded is an issue.
Maybe we can make an argument that it’s a greenwashed lazy half-step to eliminate straws or provide less effective straws while still selling disposable cups, but at the same time it isn’t just one little plastic straw we are talking about here.
A company like Starbucks that has over $20 billion in revenue…divide that by five bucks as a rough average cost of a drink and assume about 1/4 of their product sales are cold drinks and you’re looking at a company that would potentially be producing multiple billions of straws every year if they hadn’t eliminated them as a default inclusion.
Imagine a billion straws in a room and how much material that would be.
The sheer scale of many of these businesses and the human population itself is why very small steps like saving a bit of plastic on the screw cap of a soft drink or replacing straws with a hole in the lid make a huge difference to consumption and waste. I personally don’t think its productive to look steps like that with too much cynicism.
On top of that the corporation gets to enjoy the cost savings so it’s really a win-win. Obviously companies shouldn’t pat themselves on the back and consider the job done but I don’t think the world becomes a better place if Starbucks hypothetically added straws back to the waste stream.
Not only are there much bigger priorities, but it's also ridiculous in some forms, and that creates another type of distraction from what actually matters.