Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/12/dont-give-up-straws-get-sta.html
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Move over John Wick and his pencil! Soon there’s going to be a movie where someone kills a bar full of mooks with his stainless steel straw … and then finishes the last of his milkshake: “Straw Man Justice!”
Hm. I remember before straws were plastic. Some kind of waxed paper? They’d frequently collapse if you sucked too hard on a milkshake, eventually got soggy, but they should be able to handle a soft drink.
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Can’t help noticing this requires a brush with plastic bristles.
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Indeed. it’s why I expect sales will be small, and usage even smaller.
Convenience always wins, no matter how fatal. It’s why legislation has to step in on occasion.
Otherwise we’ll convenience ourselves to death.
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Nothing like sneezing unexpectedly while one of these is in your mouth.
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Yeah, because mining iron ore and cooking stainless has zero environmental effect. And because yeah for SURE you’re going to have one of these with you every time you go to McD’s, or a bar for drinks, or out for dinner, or… .
I see them as useful for clandestine blow-dart launchers, but replacing paper straws? not so much.
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Did you read the part where the straws are stainless steel?
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Some disabled people need a functional alternative before they can give up plastic straws, and when there is one then they will be happy to. Metal straws are bad because they conduct heat, and reusable straws assume that the owner is capable of cleaning them.
The least worst solution I have seen so far is some places have plastic straws available on request. It’s still not good if you have an invisible disability that requires a straw and you end up having to prove that you need it.
(I don’t need straws myself, but I have my own stories about struggling in a disabling society.)
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Stainless Steel Straws. They suck!
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I did but of course my mind went haywire. Edited to rant about the correct element.
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But they are the favorite of James Bolivar diGriz
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I see no problem with accommodating the disabled. A solution that gets rid of 95% of the plastic straws is still a win.
Personally, I’ll just keep using the carved ivory straw my grandfather brought back from safari. 
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Or drink directly from the cup/glass, like the adult you are.
(Yes, some adults need to use straws. Most don’t.)
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The original price for 8 straws is $49.99? Yowza!
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I use bendy plastic straws at home mainly because I like them, but esp. for in the middle of the night when my mouth dries out a bit. Thing is, I found a box of 40 at least a couple of years ago and I still have at least 1/2 a box left. I reuse them constantly. Just rinse 'em after sodas. They will last a long, long time and you don’t have to care about how much money just went down the drain if you lose one.
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These are way better
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Not just iron, stainless steel contains chromium, nickel etc. Definitely not environment friendly. You will have to use these straws a lot before they beat plastic straws, and odds are you are going to misplace them before that. In most cases, just skip the straw and drink as God intended us to.
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The straws that people use at home are a tiny tiny fraction of the total straw usage.
Telling people to get rid of their personal straws is akin to balancing the federal budget by cutting funding to the Special Olympics. I mean, yeah, technically it’s reducing things, but it’s not going to have any real effect.
If you want to curtail plastic straw usage, you need to get the fast food vendors onboard.
And they’re not going to stop using disposable straws.
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The elements making up stainless steel are not going to leach into the environment in ordinary use. If these straws were thrown away, they would do little but slowly return to the soil (Earth’s crust is already about 5% iron and 100ppm chromium). As far as manufacturing goes, steel is almost infinitely recyclable.
Do you have a source for that? The environmental damage caused by petroleum extraction and refining is well established. Plastic straws and other single-use items break down into ever-smaller particles that are showing up in the bodies of small marine life and working up the food chain, hence the drive to get rid of them.
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