Straws. First invented in 1888 by inventor Marvin Stone, now 500 million straws are used every day in America. That is even more than the total 360 million population of the country. What is even more shocking is that this number is only if you count disposable plastic straws and not count paper straws, which are also disposable. Because of this, many cafes and restaurants are considering alternatives, and this is where metal straws come in. I am making this loud and clear. Cafes and restaurants need to replace whatever straws they’re currently using with reusable, long-lasting stainless metal straws. Using other straws is a waste of natural resources, and it results in pollution on land and sea, and it results in unnecessary economic spending. 

Waste of Resources

Making approximately 8,000 plastic straws requires a full gallon of crude oil. One good example is the plastic straw; because they’re made from crude oil, plastic straws take away fuel that can be used for essential items. If you put it that way, by making petrol run out faster, plastic straws can negatively affect our life considering the fact that the distance across the country is 2,800 miles, and if you consider the fact that the average temperature goes down to 50 degrees in the northern states. According to an article from Zeolite Modified Electrode, after 53 years, petrol will run out, and plastic straws are also contributors to this. 

Paper straws or wood straws are no better. For a regular sized paper straw, the weight is about 1/67 of an ounce, and one tree produces approximately 1500 lbs of wood for making paper. Which means for 1.6 million straws a tree has to be sacrificed. In comparison to that one stainless metal straw is approximately ⅓ of an ounce it is much lighter, but metal straws can last 15 years. In the long run, say like 3 years, the amount of wood needed for paper or bamboo straws by far outnumbers the amount of metal needed for metal straws for the same amount of time. What’s more, according to an article from Linkedin, is that it is 100% recyclable.

Least Harmful for the Environment

Paper straw production requires a serious amount of deforestation, as is the bamboo straw. As you all know, deforestation can seriously damage the food chain, thereby damaging the ecosystem. You see, trees are the producers of energy; so deforestation would decrease the food sources starting with the primary consumers, (herbivores) to the final consumers(animals on top of the food chain). 

Plastic straws also have their own effects, due to the fact that they have serious negative effects on the sea. Crude oil extraction processes are extremely harmful to sea animals, since you never know if there could be a spill accident, which can ruthlessly kill any sea habitants in range with countless different diseases. Also, according to an article from Condorferries.co.uk, approximately 100 million sea animals die from getting entangled with plastic. This includes fish, turtles and even seabirds. 

Using stainless metal straws can benefit the cafes and restaurants as well, mainly as they’re cheaper. An individual disposable plastic straw costs 0.5 cents and 1 metal straw has an average worth of $15, which means 1 metal straw is worth 300 plastic straws or 60 paper ones or 8 bamboo straws(and bamboo straws last no more than only 6 months). On the other hand, both paper and plastic straws are one time use, so for the long run, using metal straws are less expensive. Metal straws are dishwasher safe, and are extremely easy to wash. Also if they are used on drinks that are meant to be cold, it could make the drink cooler. What’s more, it’s rust-proof. 

True, metal straws cannot be used for hot drinks since they transfer heat so fast, and I also know that, but think about how many plastic straws are used in drinks that are not meant to be hot. Think about the cold drinks that come with plastic straws. Ice americano, regular chocolate milk, ice chocolate milk, iced tea, all the different kinds of milkshakes, and the list goes on. Is it too much to ask to replace those plastic straws with metal straws? A juice bar I know uses paper straws and are getting replaced with new paper straws every day. If only that could change into metal straws, there is no need of ordering hundreds of single use paper straws and pointless economic spending.

Metal straws are also best for our health, since when plastic straws interact with cold beverages, the person can have harmful microplastic into the digestive system. If you use paper straws for drinking, that has its own problems. Wood, especially paper is extremely harmful to the digestive system to the human body, and they can result in “substances” being carried in by the drink itself. Paper straws are also very vulnerable to cold drinks and could get carried alongside the drink itself, resulting in it getting carried into your stomach. The waste of plastic straws can also harm humans. Think about all the fish that gets entangled with plastic straws and gets eaten. Whatever eats that fish, which could be humans, could find themselves with severe diseases.

 True, it does take a serious amount of mining to gain access to enough metal for making all the metal straws we need. Making only 3 straws requires an ounce of metal, but no more metal straw production is required for another dozen years.

Have you ever considered the consequences of asking for straws every day? It is not too late now, but every time we use a disposable straw, the whole planet has to take the bill. We can stop that by using reusable straws. The stainless metal straws.