Catherine Burkhardt: The Case For Straws

The last thing we all want on a nice summer day is soggy paper in our drink, but going to the beach and stepping on a crinkly, stinky plastic straw is not too appealing, either.

So, which of the two would you choose if you were given the option?

The question as to whether paper or plastic straws are better seemed to depend entirely on if you were pro-environment or pro-non-soggy drink – but, maybe, the debate is not too simple anymore.

We already know that plastic straws are the clear environmental villain. They loiter in the ocean for up to two hundred years – just waiting to find the nostril of a sea turtle or throat of another unsuspecting ocean animal.

Plastic straws might seem small and insignificant, but in identifying the most frequent pieces of litter polluting our waterways, plastic straws stole spot number seven. Why? It might be because people within the United States use up to five hundred million plastic straws – Every. Single. Day.

How much exactly is five hundred million, you may ask? Think of a school bus. Now, imagine a parking lot with 125 of those school buses. Then, in your brain, fill each bus to the brim with plastic straws; that’s the same number of straws entering the ocean each day, and those are the same ones sitting at the bottom of the ocean for two hundred years.

And, while plastic straws make up only 0.025 percent by weight of eight million tons of plastic, that quantity actually equates to 8.3 billion plastic straws on the world’s beaches. That number will only build and continue to accumulate, partly because these straws are not handled properly.

With a recycling rate below nine percent on plastic straws, these straws do not seem to have a very bright future on our Earth.

And us? We should not be happy, either. Plastic straws just made the pro-non-soggy drinkers think twice and the situation a little more complicated, because plastics contain up to 16,000 chemicals in production, and plastic straws contain Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that disrupts endocrine levels and is linked to reproductive and hormonal issues.

In fact, the CDC found that 92.6 percent of Americans over six years old had detectable levels of BPA in their bodies.

Then, why are paper straws not the clear option? They are biodegradable, environmentally friendly, not eaten by sea animals, and do not have any BPA – they seem like the whole package deal. However, no one really wants to sit by the pool and end up with soggy paper in their mouth, especially if that paper contains dangerous chemicals.

Those chemicals are PFAs, or Polyfluoroalkyl Substances: chemicals that persist for a long time and have the potential to seep into a drink and affect your body. They can impact your body in multiple ways; by disrupting reproductive health, development in young children, the body’s immune system, and hormones. PFAs can even cause an increased risk for cancer. Unsurprisingly, plastic straws have some detectable levels of PFAs, too.

Where paper straws lose this battle, however, is in the frequency of PFAs in their material.

In the journal Food Additives and Contaminants, research found that paper straws are the most likely to contain PFAs, with 18 out of 20 straws, or 90 percent, containing these harmful “forever chemicals.” Bamboo straws came in at around four out of five straws containing PFAs, plastic straws at three out of four, and glass straws at two out of five.

However, glass straw production is responsible for 44 times as many greenhouse gas emissions compared to that of plastic straws, and stainless steel straws are even worse with 148 times as much.

As a result, the sustainable straws have their fair share of issues. A study in South Africa by Takunda Chitaka, Valentina Russo, et. al estimated that to neutralize the environmental impact of glass and metal straws, it would require 23-39 reuses for glass straws and 37-63 reuses for metal straws.

Bearing all these consequences in mind, what might be the solution to the paper-plastic straw crisis and chaos?

The answer is in, perhaps, the product itself. No straws have a clean record, meaning the best choice is to avoid them altogether.

If you had to narrow it down to one, though, the choice might be bamboo straws, which are sustainable and less prevalent in PFAs. PFAs in bamboo straws are also generally used to preserve the life of the straw and ensure durability, although bamboo itself can resist and sustain against water relatively well. So, the coating which contains PFAs could possibly be removed.

If you had to choose, use a bamboo straw – or, if you are feeling brave, a glass or metal one if you reuse it. But, the best option is to choose none at all.

That means that if you find yourself at a local restaurant and someone asks if you would like a straw, it might be best to just say, “No thanks.”

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About the Author:

Catherine Burkhardt is a high school student from Massachusetts with a passion for many forms of writing, including creative nonfiction and fantasy. She enjoys exploring real-world issues through her writing and aims to leave readers with something new – whether it’s knowledge or a spark of inspiration.