People often talk about swapping out plastic straws for other materials to help the ocean/fish and the environment, but they also complain about paper straws falling apart easily. Other alternatives that are slightly more sturdy like straws made of straw don’t seem very common.

But do we even need straws? My first reaction was that any liquid can be drunk directly from the vessel it’s in, and straws just add another level of convenience. If we don’t want to use plastic straws and the alternatives mostly suck (actually all straws suck 🤓), why not just ditch straws entirely?

  • Unsustainable@lemmy.today
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    1 year ago

    Straws are necessary to some people with mobility issues. It’s important to rember that not everyone can do what you can do.

    • Ziggurat
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      1 year ago

      But that’s a typical strawman argument. The straw ban laws have exception for medical equipement, and unfortunately some place found workaround like paper straw or pasta straw. But an able-bodied adult doesn’t really need a straw to drink, getting one with a drink is even an annoyance.

      • boothin@artemis.camp
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        1 year ago

        That’s not really relevant to the question being asked and the answer you’re replying to though. OP said straws should just stop existing because it’s only a convenience, and this counterpoint was that there are people who NEED straws, not as convenience but as necessity.