Plastic straws are to 2018 as cigarettes were to the early 2000s in restaurants. And as cities and corporations have banned plastic straws, making it more and more gauche to use a disposable one — what are you, a sea-turtle murderer? — the market for reusable drinking straws has flourished as quickly as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
That plastic straws have become villainized is to the chagrin of the disabled community, who rely on disposable straws and find alternative ones cumbersome. And the amount of plastic waste generated by straws is a drop in the ocean compared with other types of pollution, such as chemical runoff and other plastics. But minimizing the use of plastic straws, for those who are able, is one small way to reduce the amount of waste we generate each year.
We took a straw poll (ba-dum-kssh!) to discover the pros and cons of eight types of reusable straws. Which ones are slurpable, and which ones just plain suck?
• Silicone straws
We tried: Hiware silicone straws, $7.99 for a set of 8 with cleaning brushes
Pros: They’re fat and squishy, which makes them good for straw-chewers and children. You won’t chip a tooth on these. They’re good for smoothies and milkshakes. It “doesn’t change temperature” so you can use it with hot or cold drinks, and you can “control the flow by pinching the straw with your mouth.” It’s the “easiest to clean” and “feels good in the hand.”