You go out to dinner or swing through a drive through and there it is. A straw. I’d take them and use them and never really think about them. We see them and use them so often in our lives they’ve become invisible. Did you know that everyday we use 500 million straws? Thats more than 46,400 school bus loads a year. That’s a lot of straws polluting our planet. The Ocean Conservancy found that straws are consistently one of the top ten pieces of trash picked up during beach clean-ups. It got so bad in Miami Beach the city actually banned hotels serving beach-goers drinks with plastic straws in an attempt to lower the number that ended up tossed on the beach.
Personally I like straws. I don’t use them at home, but I’ve seen busy servers grab and touch glasses around the rim. So yeah when I go to a restaurant I want a straw. Fortunately that where my glass straw comes in. Glass drinking straws may sound strange at first, but I love mine. The first time I drank from my glass straw was a lot like the first time I drank tea from a china cup. You don’t realize the difference until you actually try it.
My first thought upon hearing about glass straws was that I didn’t want to deal with broken glass. Then I read that Glass Dharma had a lifetime guarantee on their straws. That made me think twice. Who’d guarantee glass? Turns out the straws are made with borosilicate glass, which is the strongest glass on the market and the same type of glass used in pyrex cooking ware. So while the straws aren’t indestructible they are very sturdy. And if you don’t want to deal with glass straws there are also stainless steel and bamboo options as well.
Sure at first it may feel weird to pull your straw out at a restaurant, but not only do you save a straw from the landfill (or the beach) you also get a chance to help others really think about their use of straws.
Single use plastics are a huge strain on the planet and this is one simple way you can cut the use of single use plastics significantly.