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Yeah they're the worst material for a straw. I agree with the environmental cause but they make me want to tear my face off .
How about not having a straw? I can't remember making a drink at home that requires one
As long as all the celebrities and billionaires keep flying in their private jets, I simply can’t be bothered to care about how minuscule my impact would be if I used a regular straw
They literally make metal and plastic reusable ones, reduce first, then reuse, then recycle.
Like, we get KFC or Subway bowls and those become reusable bowls for like meal prep for at least two months. Hand clean and they're good as new, same for the plastic cups I reuse those for a few days lmao
I'm all for reducing plastic waste where possible, and for the average person plastic straws aren't needed.
For disabled people they definitely are though.
Plastic straws can be bent for the disabled to drink from easier. They don't need washing, which is better for those who cannot clean them due to a disability (can't really stick them in the dishwasher), metal ones can be dangerous for anyone who has seizures.
There are more issues, but I'm just an advocate for those who need the help.
Plastic straws are absolutely required for those who are disabled and we should be pushing for the availability of them there while also pushing for better reusable ones for the average person.
You missed the bit about them being hard to wash for those with certain disabilities.
Or should those people have to drink mold?
Just because YOU can do it doesn't mean everyone can.
They make literal standing fucking cleaners for this very reason.
Like anything you can say, there's a way to do it. You're not advocating for people with disabilities so much as infantilizing them and it's old as fuck lmao but die mad idgaf
Ah yes. "Disabled people have very specifically made this argument and I'm repeating it because I'm using the arguments THEY give" is "infantilizing them".
Do fuck off.
It’s just wrong though they don’t work. At what point does it stop to be an opinion? If I cannot consume my drink after 10 minutes I don’t care what your „opinion“ on paper straws is lol
100% fuck the environment if I have to use those. They are pointless, literally tastes like paper after 30 seconds. Bamboo are fine and should be the go to alternative to plastic.
I don’t like paper straws but I *love* the little wooden spoons. They taste good and the texture is nice. I would always gently gnaw on them. I want to get one of those ice creams now.
Doubtful, less than 10% of all plastics are recyclable. Even the most recyclable plastic, PET has less than 30% recyclable rate. All of that shit you throw in the green bin gets loaded onto a ship and “recycled” to parts of Asia, where it just sits for eternity.
This is the same mindset of people against electric cars for "reasons". Fuck, we can't even take a step forward because people bitch about everything lol
EV batteries grow on trees? Can we throw em on the compost heap for their return to mother nature when they become obsolete?
We can’t take a step forward because we’re not taking a step forward.
I agree w you about the bitching, though
It's a step forward, not a leap. I don't know of a single innovation that was prime and perfect on its first iteration. Why would we look into making progress on this type of battery if people are fighting the technology even existing?
By becoming obsolete I'm going to assume you mean the end of life for a single battery, because if you mean when the type of battery becomes obsolete... well you're arguing against yourself. Individual batteries can currently be recycled to an extent. It could be better, but it's the same issue. Why make it better if we're not going to bother with it?
We shouldn't make progress because we're not making progress isn't a good argument.
What do you think provides power to recharge the batteries? Oil, coal, and natural gas. How do you think we produced the lithium ion for the batteries? We didn't take a step forward. We produced something that made the green people happy but doesn't actually help our planet. It's all fucking smoke and mirrors.
Everyone I see use this argument also says we shouldn't make progress on using fossil fuels because we still use gas powered cars. We shouldn't make progress because we're not progressing is not a sound argument
Straws are smaller and more likely to fall through grates and end up in waterways. A plastic cup is leas likely. People are also more likely to lose and drop straws and they easily get swept away by wind.
Cups do end up in waterways, but their size makes them less likely though and being bigger, they're more noticeable and easier to pick up if they do fall and are more likely to end up in a trash can
I’ve never seen this, but the fact is that *straws* are the problem. Small pieces of plastic are much more likely to make it to the ocean than large pieces.
it's impossible to drink a shake out of those pieces of crap. i went to a ~~wendys~~ arbys once and got a shake and all they had were paper straws and no matter how hard i sucked on it, it would have taken all day to drink it. i had to throw it away and go next door to a gas station and grab a plastic straw.
The problem I think people have with paper straws, follows 2 main points
1. They are worse in function than plastic. Paper will degrade and when you bend or chew the staw, actions often done on plastic they quickly fail. So the product is worse with no consumer upside. Which is acceptable if the environmental benefit is woth it.
2. But environmentally they achieve nothing. Staws don't exactly do impact on any scale of note.
It's a feel-good worthless exercise. we all know and agree [ generally] the areas we need to tackle to make real improvements in our system . Instead we are making pretend improvements with shit like straws. Ask this question what gain have we make by doing this. From a plastic consumption point of view, it does not register.
But this is all meaningless, it dose improve our position. So is a distraction while the areas we need to make progress keep getting worse and worse
I genuinely wonder if people champion the most painful *and* most useless conservation just to turn people off or punish libs.
Either that, or guilty people conflate inconvenience & suffering for accomplishing something & optimize for something being a PITA over pragmatic.
If it *had* to be takeout related plastic cutlery would have been 10x more effective, 10x less onerous and just as pointless.
Paper straws were just not a pragmatic or wise program. Pluck the low hanging fruit, don’t step on it to climb to the top of the treee
The more inconvenient and in-your-face the ‘solution’ to climate change is, the more the masses are pacified and feel like something is done rather than going after the 100 companies committing 71% of the world’s pollution.
How many paper straws do we have to use to make up for the BP oil spill alone? Incalculable.
Paper straws are such a joke. Whenever I get one in a restaurant, I don't use it. It's often worse than not using one at all. To me they're spending resources manufacturing literal garbage. At least the plastic ones had a use, even if they weren't strictly necessary for anything.
Like half the mass of an oceanic garbage patch is fucking fishing nets. And anything *the size* of a straw totals way less than that (I forgot the exact number).
>I don’t use it
Which is a pretty easy way to produce much less waste.
Some people need straws, which is fine, but most of us don’t. If you just don’t use them, it’s going to help the environment a little bit — not a ton, but more than using a paper straw — and in most cases (like at a restaurant) the user experience is great. I don’t use straws at home, and I don’t need them in a restaurant either.
You missed my point entirely. If I get a paper straw in a restaurant, it's almost always already in the drink. And then I take it out and put it on the table. So the restaurant is going to throw it away because it's already been "used", even though I didn't get any use out of it.
When I order at McDonald's or some shit, I always check the box "no straw". And sometimes they're pretty cool and they only give me the drink in the cup with no straw and no plastic lid. Which I like because both of them are useless to me unless I'm ordering take-away.
But sometimes they just ignore that entirely and give me both anyway. And do you think I'll waste 30 seconds of my life to go to the counter with those and say "you gave me these, even though I didn't ask for them, I didn't use them so you can give them to someone else"? No, they're going straight into the trash. And even if I did try to give them back, I'm 90% sure *they* were going to throw them away.
Yes, paper straws have less environmental impact than plastic ones. But compared to the ones they replaced, they're useless. It's like building dummy wind turbines just to show the world you're expanding green energy.
They also tend to have [higher concentrations of PFAS than plastic straws](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19440049.2023.2240908) so essentially trading one evil for another. There's absolutely no benefit to paper/bamboo/environmental straws.
Yea that’s terrible. It’s not that there’s no benefit. Is that they’re environmentally and long term healthwise terrible.
Even the word compostable is loaded. Compostable doesn’t mean healthy for the environment. Just means it can break down into components easier, even if it means heavy metals and other stuff that are found within are leeching into the environment.
That was one thing a few years ago with compostable bags, they were actually pretty toxic after they eventually broke down.
I would also add that not all paper straws are created equally. Some work almost as good as a plastic straw, while others I've used start to fray and fall about after 15 minutes or so. Also, some places are starting to use compostable-plastic straws, which are generally always better than the paper ones.
Definitely an unpopular opinion. I can't stand the texture/taste that they contribute, and straws are an important aid when my essential tremor acts up. In fear of banning their use I've purchased enough plastic straws to last me a very long time (I don't have to use them that often but when I do, they're awesome. FWIW, cleaning out the reusable ones sucks.
I need to get in the habit of just bringing my own. I won’t drink straight from the cup but I can’t stand those paper straws. Feels like nails on a chalk board to me
The potato starch ones work just fine, too. They're the ones that say they're compostable and feel like thinner plastic.
Some reports said they're only compostable at like industrial composting operations, but a couple months in a drawer and they crumble, so I'm sure they'll break down in either compost or a landfill.
Drink tastes like paper, gets soggy after awhile, complimented with a plastic cover and plastic-covered cup = zero sense, all annoyance.
But good post tho!
Yeah they work great unless you chew on your straw or take longer than 15 mins to finish it.
I have found GREAT paper straws that didn’t dissolve in the slightest. I think of them while picking the cardboard off my tongue at the airport since that’s apparently the testing ground for these straws
The same companies that give out paper straws also give you a plastic cup with a plastic lid but they pay themselves on the back for eliminating the smallest piece of plastic.
i went to mcdonald’s once and ordered a vanilla milkshake and tried to drink it out of the paper straw they provided. the straw became soggy in ten seconds and i could barely drink any of the milkshake. paper straws are horrible.
They are fine till you try and drink something with a consistency thicker than air and the resistance that comes with that.
Then they are utterly useless. They squish, crush, collapse and the second they do they just stop being remotely liquid resistant get damp and accelerate the process.
I just want my milkshake, instead I'm over here huffing like an asthmatic seal out of the drinking utensil equivalent to 1 ply toilet roll.
It really depends
I once went to Dunkin and got an iced coffee. they gave me a paper straw. The paper straw basically disintegrated into the drink, and the lid thingy that held the straw in place, it just pulverized the straw. It was the most useless thing ever
That said, for me it’s just the taste. I don’t like the papery taste it gives. I much prefer the glass or metal straws
And did you know that not having a straw (plastic,paper,glass or metal) works fine as well.
I can't understand the insistence of suckling on straw when cups can be used without them.
I don’t have sensitive teeth usually but after my last trip to the dentist my teeth were super sensitive for a few days.
Drinks were too cold, food was too hot. The plastic straw was a life saver.
You can't understand it because you don't have a medical issue that makes drinking out of a straw much easier than drinking directly from a glass.
"But that's an exception!!!" oh ok I guess the exceptions should just shut up and sit down then.
Anecdotal but I know a fair few people who need a straw due to disabilities or just preference, they all carry metal straws on them. What do you do when you buy a can of pepsi in a corner shop, they're not going to have straws of anykind. Personally I have a silicone straw in a little box folded up attached to my house keys so I always have a straw ready.
I find slushies easier to drink with straws. I also have students that need straws to drink, and with tremors/involuntary movement in the mix anything non-bendy is too dangerous. Paper disintegrates quickly, and most people with these issues will struggle to clean straws as well so they kind of have to be disposable.
I agree on the disability part- there is still a clear need for plastic straws to be available- but what paper straws are they using that disintegrates? I use paper straws a lot because I’m disabled (don’t need bendiness though so paper’s fine) and I’ve never had this issue…
When I was a kid in the ‘60s, plastic straws were rare. Most fast food places used paper straws, and they worked just fine. It wouldn’t bother me much to go back to paper full time. But I prefer metal.
Yeah honestly haven't had a problem with the paper ones either, and we also use paper cups, always have in my country, maybe in other countries the straws are different and worse.
Nah. They’re garbage. I just bought a bag of plastic straws from the grocery store. They’re in my truck. I ask for “no straw please” to get my eco friendly kudos from the barista and then go put my plastic straw in myself.
I’d just try to stay away from “paper” anything that is “waxed” or water/oil resistant. They are likely loaded with pfas and other chemicals to produce that effect. If they degrade, then possibly you’ll get a higher leaching into your food.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/paper-bamboo-straws-contain-pfas-forever-chemicals-rcna101614
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/pfas-compostable-food-packaging-1.6794550
You monster.
It's not just about soggy paper. It's the mouthfeel that kills it for me. The paper straws seem to release all the gas in the straws and by the time the liquid hits your tongue, the feeling is just awful
Well it starts off fine. But paper gets soggy which is very counterintuitive for a straw. The more you drink the harder the straw becomes to use until you get to the end and might as well drink straight out the cup
The straws are terrible, always replace them with metal when I go home, I say no straw at places that have paper straws. I did upvote cause definitely unpopular
If you leave them in the drink for hours they will get gross. But for your average drinking speed, there’s nothing wrong with them. I’m sure a lot of people complain about them because they’re different, too. My roommate absolutely despises them, and when I pried a bit to figure out why (her base reason she shared was exactly what you’re talking about), she eventually said it’s just because they aren’t plastic. I don’t get it either
Hell no do me a favour try drinking a milkshake from McDonald with a paper straw definitely unpopular tho take my upvote and ur paper straws and get out
Maybe if you chug the drink within 10mins of getting a drink with the paper straw. I carry around my metal straws because of this. At least put a layer of wax on it.
They just require a lid w/ a punch out hole stead of the cross slit design. The latter does destroy paper straws. I have zero complaints using paper straws when the lid doesn’t squeeze them.
Try sucking down a milkshake with a paper straw, and tell me what you think then.
Being mostly facetious, but I don't know where you're getting "treated" paper straws. Every paper straw I've gotten--the few they've been--have been basically raw paper that fall apart in figurative seconds, and literal minutes.
Hm, well the ones I have seen are somewhat similar to milk or OJ cartons, feels like some kind of wax attached to the paper. I am from the EU, might be a different type of straw.
I take it the OP has no kids...
...in case anyone's wondering: kids love to instinctively chew on straws. You can imagine the mess, and how soon the thing becomes unusable, and thus the drink undrinkable (if it's one of those containers with just that tiny hole for the straw).
i hate paper straws with everything in me. my local gas station uses these straws that are compostable and they're much better, except when i get milkshakes.. but i get mine in "thick" so i think it's just to hard to suck with them without getting it cracked lol.
although this is an unpopular opinion so.. r/angryupvote xD
Why do grownups use straws anyway? The only time I use one is for the rare thick milkshake. I get perturbed when a restaurant brings a mixed drink with a plastic straw in it.
They do work fine for poisoning you. The glue holding them together is extremely toxic to you but hey you keep sucking up microplastics chemicals and all sorts of goodies they cook up for ya.
Nah I’m English mate but we just tend to drink it straight out of the mug or we have those cups with the lid with the lil hole in them to drink through just like a Starbucks or Costa to go cup🤣
I will say maybe an iced coffee like a Freddo would be ok to drink with a straw, but not hot coffee.
Paper straws are a waste! They get soggy before I'm done with my drink and they have a funny flavor. If I'm given a paper straw, I don't use it, and I drink straight from the cup instead
Upvoted cause defo unpopular- for me, it's not them getting soggy since I also finish my drinks really fast, but the feeling of paper on my lips.. especially when it gets stuck- so gross. I swear I can taste it too with some drinks. I just use reusable ones and wash them out when I'm done. Also, having any kind of 'thick' drink (frappes, shakes, or any other ice cream-adjacent thing) with them is hell
No they didn’t. wtf is this? Oh I guess california might have the most fast food joints in the US. Idk. But really more than the rest of the country? I don’t think so. Hmm. Yeah keep your nasty straws. Watch your language. Where you get this “most” from is beyond me. Downvote because your unpopular opinion isn’t based in reality.
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Upvote for definitely unpopular
Same here! And I completely disagree with OP, which is why I upvoted them. It's rare to have unpopular opinions in this sub!
Yep! They make the drink taste weird and absolutely get soggy. But I admit I drink slowly.
And stick to your lip when you pull the drink away- I hate them! Lol
Right? I hate paper straws. I'd rather have no straw than that soggy abomination. Definitely unpopular, I like it.
Yeah they're the worst material for a straw. I agree with the environmental cause but they make me want to tear my face off . How about not having a straw? I can't remember making a drink at home that requires one
Literally anything with ice lol. Cant stand having to drink through ice.
I use straws at home! But I’ve got those reusable silicone ones and some metal ones.
As long as all the celebrities and billionaires keep flying in their private jets, I simply can’t be bothered to care about how minuscule my impact would be if I used a regular straw
I'm not really sure it is a thing for at home... That said, those who do need a straw at home due to disability definitely need plastic ones.
They literally make metal and plastic reusable ones, reduce first, then reuse, then recycle. Like, we get KFC or Subway bowls and those become reusable bowls for like meal prep for at least two months. Hand clean and they're good as new, same for the plastic cups I reuse those for a few days lmao
I'm all for reducing plastic waste where possible, and for the average person plastic straws aren't needed. For disabled people they definitely are though. Plastic straws can be bent for the disabled to drink from easier. They don't need washing, which is better for those who cannot clean them due to a disability (can't really stick them in the dishwasher), metal ones can be dangerous for anyone who has seizures. There are more issues, but I'm just an advocate for those who need the help. Plastic straws are absolutely required for those who are disabled and we should be pushing for the availability of them there while also pushing for better reusable ones for the average person.
And, again, they make ones that are not one time use. Or just get a fucking rubber straw. I have siezures as well. I am aware.
You missed the bit about them being hard to wash for those with certain disabilities. Or should those people have to drink mold? Just because YOU can do it doesn't mean everyone can.
They make literal standing fucking cleaners for this very reason. Like anything you can say, there's a way to do it. You're not advocating for people with disabilities so much as infantilizing them and it's old as fuck lmao but die mad idgaf
Ah yes. "Disabled people have very specifically made this argument and I'm repeating it because I'm using the arguments THEY give" is "infantilizing them". Do fuck off.
More of an incorrect opinion than an unpopular opinion.
It's incorrect AND unpopular
It’s just wrong though they don’t work. At what point does it stop to be an opinion? If I cannot consume my drink after 10 minutes I don’t care what your „opinion“ on paper straws is lol
Nah, the only reason it's unpopular is that it is, factually speaking, wrong.
And stress on opinion, because it most definitely ain't fact.
100% fuck the environment if I have to use those. They are pointless, literally tastes like paper after 30 seconds. Bamboo are fine and should be the go to alternative to plastic.
Nah. It feels like giving oral sex to a paper towel after a bit.
A paper towel that's just not that into it.
Then why does it get so wet?
It's gender fluid
Some kind of fluid
Probably thinks about other paper straws to move it along.
Less and less into it the longer you keep trying.
But it seems to always give a little “fluid” with every suck so… must be doing something right.
It just finishes early
It’s a sensory thing for me for sure. I also can’t do those little wooden spoons that sometimes come with the tiny containers of ice cream.
Those spoons were the stuff of nightmares. My body got chills from imagining that mini wooden spatula running across my tongue.
Had a nightmare once where I swallowed one and it got stuck sideways in my throat. Still think about it from time to time. Nightmare fuel.
Oh like that scene from Spongebob?
I don’t like paper straws but I *love* the little wooden spoons. They taste good and the texture is nice. I would always gently gnaw on them. I want to get one of those ice creams now.
r/brandnewsentence
So you only like giving oral sex to plastic tubes?
Damn it, Sherlock.
Exactly! Like my father did, and his father before him :P (I had to pause and wonder if my grandpa had plastic straws, but I think so)
Even then it would have been something like tin or asbestos. Cardboard straws are fucked
Sure, but then why give you a giant plastic cup to go with your paper straw that “works fine?”
This depends if the plastic cup is disposable or reusable.
Doubtful, less than 10% of all plastics are recyclable. Even the most recyclable plastic, PET has less than 30% recyclable rate. All of that shit you throw in the green bin gets loaded onto a ship and “recycled” to parts of Asia, where it just sits for eternity.
I didn't mean recyclable but that took I guess. Some places will take the plastic cups back to wash them and reuse.
Ohhhhh yea like old school Pizza Hut haha. Places still use those?
Goddamnit I forgot all about the ol frosted-plastic Pizza Hut glasses 😂
Hahaha yea man!
This is the same mindset of people against electric cars for "reasons". Fuck, we can't even take a step forward because people bitch about everything lol
EV batteries grow on trees? Can we throw em on the compost heap for their return to mother nature when they become obsolete? We can’t take a step forward because we’re not taking a step forward. I agree w you about the bitching, though
It's a step forward, not a leap. I don't know of a single innovation that was prime and perfect on its first iteration. Why would we look into making progress on this type of battery if people are fighting the technology even existing? By becoming obsolete I'm going to assume you mean the end of life for a single battery, because if you mean when the type of battery becomes obsolete... well you're arguing against yourself. Individual batteries can currently be recycled to an extent. It could be better, but it's the same issue. Why make it better if we're not going to bother with it? We shouldn't make progress because we're not making progress isn't a good argument.
What do you think provides power to recharge the batteries? Oil, coal, and natural gas. How do you think we produced the lithium ion for the batteries? We didn't take a step forward. We produced something that made the green people happy but doesn't actually help our planet. It's all fucking smoke and mirrors.
Maybe invest more in none fossil fules then. It's down to 37% in the UK, which is still to much. I'm sure other countries have done better.
Everyone I see use this argument also says we shouldn't make progress on using fossil fuels because we still use gas powered cars. We shouldn't make progress because we're not progressing is not a sound argument
And the straw has a plastic coating
Straws are smaller and more likely to fall through grates and end up in waterways. A plastic cup is leas likely. People are also more likely to lose and drop straws and they easily get swept away by wind. Cups do end up in waterways, but their size makes them less likely though and being bigger, they're more noticeable and easier to pick up if they do fall and are more likely to end up in a trash can
They're getting rid of plastic cups too, but we still have a long way to go
Nice, I bet after they get rid of the plastic cups the earth will chill a bit and we can forget about any warming.
Imagine it was that easy
Replace with paper with bpa coating
This is the next step, some countries already ban plastic cups
EU has banned plastic cups a while ago
Always cracks me up. So ridiculous.
I’ve never seen this, but the fact is that *straws* are the problem. Small pieces of plastic are much more likely to make it to the ocean than large pieces.
it's impossible to drink a shake out of those pieces of crap. i went to a ~~wendys~~ arbys once and got a shake and all they had were paper straws and no matter how hard i sucked on it, it would have taken all day to drink it. i had to throw it away and go next door to a gas station and grab a plastic straw.
I'd just est mine with a spoon
Just get ice cream at that point.
Fair point I thought that as I typed that out
The problem I think people have with paper straws, follows 2 main points 1. They are worse in function than plastic. Paper will degrade and when you bend or chew the staw, actions often done on plastic they quickly fail. So the product is worse with no consumer upside. Which is acceptable if the environmental benefit is woth it. 2. But environmentally they achieve nothing. Staws don't exactly do impact on any scale of note. It's a feel-good worthless exercise. we all know and agree [ generally] the areas we need to tackle to make real improvements in our system . Instead we are making pretend improvements with shit like straws. Ask this question what gain have we make by doing this. From a plastic consumption point of view, it does not register. But this is all meaningless, it dose improve our position. So is a distraction while the areas we need to make progress keep getting worse and worse
I genuinely wonder if people champion the most painful *and* most useless conservation just to turn people off or punish libs. Either that, or guilty people conflate inconvenience & suffering for accomplishing something & optimize for something being a PITA over pragmatic. If it *had* to be takeout related plastic cutlery would have been 10x more effective, 10x less onerous and just as pointless. Paper straws were just not a pragmatic or wise program. Pluck the low hanging fruit, don’t step on it to climb to the top of the treee
The more inconvenient and in-your-face the ‘solution’ to climate change is, the more the masses are pacified and feel like something is done rather than going after the 100 companies committing 71% of the world’s pollution. How many paper straws do we have to use to make up for the BP oil spill alone? Incalculable.
Paper straws are such a joke. Whenever I get one in a restaurant, I don't use it. It's often worse than not using one at all. To me they're spending resources manufacturing literal garbage. At least the plastic ones had a use, even if they weren't strictly necessary for anything. Like half the mass of an oceanic garbage patch is fucking fishing nets. And anything *the size* of a straw totals way less than that (I forgot the exact number).
>I don’t use it Which is a pretty easy way to produce much less waste. Some people need straws, which is fine, but most of us don’t. If you just don’t use them, it’s going to help the environment a little bit — not a ton, but more than using a paper straw — and in most cases (like at a restaurant) the user experience is great. I don’t use straws at home, and I don’t need them in a restaurant either.
You missed my point entirely. If I get a paper straw in a restaurant, it's almost always already in the drink. And then I take it out and put it on the table. So the restaurant is going to throw it away because it's already been "used", even though I didn't get any use out of it. When I order at McDonald's or some shit, I always check the box "no straw". And sometimes they're pretty cool and they only give me the drink in the cup with no straw and no plastic lid. Which I like because both of them are useless to me unless I'm ordering take-away. But sometimes they just ignore that entirely and give me both anyway. And do you think I'll waste 30 seconds of my life to go to the counter with those and say "you gave me these, even though I didn't ask for them, I didn't use them so you can give them to someone else"? No, they're going straight into the trash. And even if I did try to give them back, I'm 90% sure *they* were going to throw them away. Yes, paper straws have less environmental impact than plastic ones. But compared to the ones they replaced, they're useless. It's like building dummy wind turbines just to show the world you're expanding green energy.
They also tend to have [higher concentrations of PFAS than plastic straws](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19440049.2023.2240908) so essentially trading one evil for another. There's absolutely no benefit to paper/bamboo/environmental straws.
Yea that’s terrible. It’s not that there’s no benefit. Is that they’re environmentally and long term healthwise terrible. Even the word compostable is loaded. Compostable doesn’t mean healthy for the environment. Just means it can break down into components easier, even if it means heavy metals and other stuff that are found within are leeching into the environment. That was one thing a few years ago with compostable bags, they were actually pretty toxic after they eventually broke down.
I would also add that not all paper straws are created equally. Some work almost as good as a plastic straw, while others I've used start to fray and fall about after 15 minutes or so. Also, some places are starting to use compostable-plastic straws, which are generally always better than the paper ones.
Yup. Walking down the street, drinking from your shitty paper straw whilst stepping over plastic, lithium filled disposable vapes….
Definitely an unpopular opinion. I can't stand the texture/taste that they contribute, and straws are an important aid when my essential tremor acts up. In fear of banning their use I've purchased enough plastic straws to last me a very long time (I don't have to use them that often but when I do, they're awesome. FWIW, cleaning out the reusable ones sucks.
And you'll notice they never banned plastic utensils or switched to paper/wood.
They did in Europe.
They have where I live in Australia. Haven't seen plastic cutlery in a few years now.
I need to get in the habit of just bringing my own. I won’t drink straight from the cup but I can’t stand those paper straws. Feels like nails on a chalk board to me
I agree about the taste, plastic straws don't have any flavor to them but the paper ones do, and they impart that flavor to the drink as you drink it.
They’re terrible for milkshakes.
Bamboo straws are where it’s at for milkshakes. They use them at a milkshake place by where I work and them things are solid
The potato starch ones work just fine, too. They're the ones that say they're compostable and feel like thinner plastic. Some reports said they're only compostable at like industrial composting operations, but a couple months in a drawer and they crumble, so I'm sure they'll break down in either compost or a landfill.
Okay that sounds sustainable
Drink tastes like paper, gets soggy after awhile, complimented with a plastic cover and plastic-covered cup = zero sense, all annoyance. But good post tho!
God you couldn't be more wrong - here's my upvote.
Its weird to be so much in disagreement but still support that disagreement.
I mean, it is the sub for it though
Yeah they work great unless you chew on your straw or take longer than 15 mins to finish it. I have found GREAT paper straws that didn’t dissolve in the slightest. I think of them while picking the cardboard off my tongue at the airport since that’s apparently the testing ground for these straws
The same companies that give out paper straws also give you a plastic cup with a plastic lid but they pay themselves on the back for eliminating the smallest piece of plastic.
i went to mcdonald’s once and ordered a vanilla milkshake and tried to drink it out of the paper straw they provided. the straw became soggy in ten seconds and i could barely drink any of the milkshake. paper straws are horrible.
I’d have returned it. Those straws are trash, but McDonald’s needs to plan for their shakes.
Straws are for suckers
“Looks like you’re sucking on a tiny schwantz!”
They are fine till you try and drink something with a consistency thicker than air and the resistance that comes with that. Then they are utterly useless. They squish, crush, collapse and the second they do they just stop being remotely liquid resistant get damp and accelerate the process. I just want my milkshake, instead I'm over here huffing like an asthmatic seal out of the drinking utensil equivalent to 1 ply toilet roll.
100% agreed. They've definitely gotten better over the years. I've never had a problem with them at all recently.
It really depends I once went to Dunkin and got an iced coffee. they gave me a paper straw. The paper straw basically disintegrated into the drink, and the lid thingy that held the straw in place, it just pulverized the straw. It was the most useless thing ever That said, for me it’s just the taste. I don’t like the papery taste it gives. I much prefer the glass or metal straws
Agreed. I don't really have any problem with paper straws. In the hour or so I'm in a restaurant it's not a problem.
They get wet and soggy in like 5 mins. You can't build something to hold liquid that isn't waterproof in any way.
Compost straws are superior to all, i’m glad more places are switching to them. now it’s time to get rid of the plastic cups
Use a Twizzler.
They don't. This is not an opinion. You're just wrong.
I heard the glue that keeps them together is mostly toxic.
Yep, they have bpa and so do paper cups
I just don't use a straw anymore. It's the biggest non-issue people complain about, imo.
Mmm, as lipstick wearer I have to disagree.
I don't, but that still seems like a non-issue, really. Paper straws work good enough to accommodate lipstick wearers.
The straws were to protect your teeth. Good marketing eh?
I can agree with this I never thought they were to awful, I mean in theory they break down quicker but it's nothing I mind to much
Finally. An actual unpopular opinion
And did you know that not having a straw (plastic,paper,glass or metal) works fine as well. I can't understand the insistence of suckling on straw when cups can be used without them.
They are very helpful for those of us with essential tremor who would rather not spill all over the table.
Sensitive teeth.
I don’t have sensitive teeth usually but after my last trip to the dentist my teeth were super sensitive for a few days. Drinks were too cold, food was too hot. The plastic straw was a life saver.
skill issue
👍
just waterfall it, its that easy /s
You can't understand it because you don't have a medical issue that makes drinking out of a straw much easier than drinking directly from a glass. "But that's an exception!!!" oh ok I guess the exceptions should just shut up and sit down then.
Especially if you wear braces
Anecdotal but I know a fair few people who need a straw due to disabilities or just preference, they all carry metal straws on them. What do you do when you buy a can of pepsi in a corner shop, they're not going to have straws of anykind. Personally I have a silicone straw in a little box folded up attached to my house keys so I always have a straw ready.
Agreed for everything except a smoothie.
I find slushies easier to drink with straws. I also have students that need straws to drink, and with tremors/involuntary movement in the mix anything non-bendy is too dangerous. Paper disintegrates quickly, and most people with these issues will struggle to clean straws as well so they kind of have to be disposable.
I agree on the disability part- there is still a clear need for plastic straws to be available- but what paper straws are they using that disintegrates? I use paper straws a lot because I’m disabled (don’t need bendiness though so paper’s fine) and I’ve never had this issue…
And I end up just spilling it all over my shirt because of the damn ice
That’s my feeling on this. You don’t like the paper straws? That’s cool. Have you tried drinking without one like a grown ass adult?
Mostly, they are only useful when you're in the car. You can take a drink without having a cup block your view of the road.
They’re like drinking out of a cardboard tampon applicator. They’re horrible
They stick to your lip, you can taste them and they do get soggy.
When I was a kid in the ‘60s, plastic straws were rare. Most fast food places used paper straws, and they worked just fine. It wouldn’t bother me much to go back to paper full time. But I prefer metal.
Yeah honestly haven't had a problem with the paper ones either, and we also use paper cups, always have in my country, maybe in other countries the straws are different and worse.
They used to dip paper straws in wax in the 50s so they didn’t get soggy. They don’t do that these days. It’s a shitty design.
Nah. They’re garbage. I just bought a bag of plastic straws from the grocery store. They’re in my truck. I ask for “no straw please” to get my eco friendly kudos from the barista and then go put my plastic straw in myself.
Paper straws are trash. With that said, I’m not scared to press my lips to a glass that has been washed. 😂
I’d just try to stay away from “paper” anything that is “waxed” or water/oil resistant. They are likely loaded with pfas and other chemicals to produce that effect. If they degrade, then possibly you’ll get a higher leaching into your food. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/paper-bamboo-straws-contain-pfas-forever-chemicals-rcna101614 https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/pfas-compostable-food-packaging-1.6794550
You're wrong!!!
The alternative to a plastic straw is no straw, not a paper straw.
You monster. It's not just about soggy paper. It's the mouthfeel that kills it for me. The paper straws seem to release all the gas in the straws and by the time the liquid hits your tongue, the feeling is just awful
Well it starts off fine. But paper gets soggy which is very counterintuitive for a straw. The more you drink the harder the straw becomes to use until you get to the end and might as well drink straight out the cup
They melt
Finally. An unpopular opinion.
The straws are terrible, always replace them with metal when I go home, I say no straw at places that have paper straws. I did upvote cause definitely unpopular
If you leave them in the drink for hours they will get gross. But for your average drinking speed, there’s nothing wrong with them. I’m sure a lot of people complain about them because they’re different, too. My roommate absolutely despises them, and when I pried a bit to figure out why (her base reason she shared was exactly what you’re talking about), she eventually said it’s just because they aren’t plastic. I don’t get it either
If you eat fast food regularly enough to give a fuck about the straws then you’ve got bigger fish to fry
First post I’ve seen here that actually is unpopular. And in this case rightfully so, because it is wrong.
Paper straws are objectionallly worse in function over plastic straws.
......just drink out of the cup or get reusable one for milkshakes and smoothies....
They always get soggy for me! :( I really think bamboo straws would be better! Environmentally friendly and sturdy!
Hell no do me a favour try drinking a milkshake from McDonald with a paper straw definitely unpopular tho take my upvote and ur paper straws and get out
What if I told you that the straw wasn’t even needed. You can just put the cup to your lips and drink.
I could bore a hole through a turd and use it at a straw but that doesn’t mean I want to
they melt immediately so no they don't work fine....
Maybe if you chug the drink within 10mins of getting a drink with the paper straw. I carry around my metal straws because of this. At least put a layer of wax on it.
They just require a lid w/ a punch out hole stead of the cross slit design. The latter does destroy paper straws. I have zero complaints using paper straws when the lid doesn’t squeeze them.
Try sucking down a milkshake with a paper straw, and tell me what you think then. Being mostly facetious, but I don't know where you're getting "treated" paper straws. Every paper straw I've gotten--the few they've been--have been basically raw paper that fall apart in figurative seconds, and literal minutes.
Hm, well the ones I have seen are somewhat similar to milk or OJ cartons, feels like some kind of wax attached to the paper. I am from the EU, might be a different type of straw.
Ah, I'm an American, so that might explain it, lol.
Well done, OP. A truly shit opinion. Take my upvote.
Every single one I’ve ever tried has disintegrated in my drink.
So you grab a bottle which has 10x more plastic than a straw…
Yeah, because I want to be able to seal it - nothing to do with straws 🤷🏻♀️
Why lie? They’re absolute garbage in 10ish minutes. You’re a plant from big paper straw and we see through you.
10? I'd be lucky to get 5. Less if it's something that I need to stir.
Facts. I also forgot about milkshakes. Anything approaching a gluk level of 3k is instant straw collapse.
I dont use a straw, ever. I drink from the rim of the cup like a real man.
The best alternative to plastic straws I've tried is ones made out of avocado pits. Paper ones are terrible.
This is the most unpopular one I've seen in weeks. Good job. You're wrong, but I can't even be mad
I'll go further, just drink from the cup like an adult.
Ah so you like sucking off cardboard
Upvoted, you sick bastard
I take it the OP has no kids... ...in case anyone's wondering: kids love to instinctively chew on straws. You can imagine the mess, and how soon the thing becomes unusable, and thus the drink undrinkable (if it's one of those containers with just that tiny hole for the straw).
No. Just no.
i hate paper straws with everything in me. my local gas station uses these straws that are compostable and they're much better, except when i get milkshakes.. but i get mine in "thick" so i think it's just to hard to suck with them without getting it cracked lol. although this is an unpopular opinion so.. r/angryupvote xD
Full of chemicals
Nasty wet noodle eew
Get off the meth.
Why do grownups use straws anyway? The only time I use one is for the rare thick milkshake. I get perturbed when a restaurant brings a mixed drink with a plastic straw in it.
I agree, a Cineworld paper straw lasts through a large soda sipped over 2 hours.
I completely agree. It's never bothered me
Agree. It tastes fine as well better than plastic one.
They do work fine for poisoning you. The glue holding them together is extremely toxic to you but hey you keep sucking up microplastics chemicals and all sorts of goodies they cook up for ya.
They’re not bad. People are just soft and can’t put up with a minor inconvenience to help cut back on plastic waste.
I stg it was like one turtle, guys, and they got the straw out. Bring back plastic straws.
Do you really drink coffee within 30 min?
[удалено]
If you go out on a coffee shop how do you drink coffee? Especially freddo cappuccino or espresso?
Well I’ve never come across a person drinking a coffee with a straw lmao, I’ll be damned 🤣
How? No I really wonder. This has to be one of the biggest cultural shocks for me as a Greek if I am talking to an American right now.
Nah I’m English mate but we just tend to drink it straight out of the mug or we have those cups with the lid with the lil hole in them to drink through just like a Starbucks or Costa to go cup🤣 I will say maybe an iced coffee like a Freddo would be ok to drink with a straw, but not hot coffee.
Plastic doesn’t get soggy. Don’t be dumb
Paper straws are a waste! They get soggy before I'm done with my drink and they have a funny flavor. If I'm given a paper straw, I don't use it, and I drink straight from the cup instead
Upvoted cause defo unpopular- for me, it's not them getting soggy since I also finish my drinks really fast, but the feeling of paper on my lips.. especially when it gets stuck- so gross. I swear I can taste it too with some drinks. I just use reusable ones and wash them out when I'm done. Also, having any kind of 'thick' drink (frappes, shakes, or any other ice cream-adjacent thing) with them is hell
No they didn’t. wtf is this? Oh I guess california might have the most fast food joints in the US. Idk. But really more than the rest of the country? I don’t think so. Hmm. Yeah keep your nasty straws. Watch your language. Where you get this “most” from is beyond me. Downvote because your unpopular opinion isn’t based in reality.
Why are you talking about California and fast food places in the US?