• BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    the only “straws” i use now are the built-in straws on my water bottles. when dad was dying, he had drop-neck and bendy straws let him drink on his own. something about both being a straw and at whatever angle he needed for his mouth, since he rarely stood or sat entirely upright. he could not drink directly from a glass without burying his nose in it or spilling half of it. for me it’s not one of those “hey, now that this effects me” bullshits, it’s more “hey, now that i understand how necessary they are in specific contexts” bullshits.

    if they can make a corn or paper bendy straw that functions properly, i’m all for it. until then, there are much bigger and better things to worry about than straws.

    • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
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      6 hours ago

      It might sound silly, but sippy cups are also an option. You can lift and drink from the cup without spilling that way

    • pipes@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      Thank you for this perspective because I’m one of those who never saw the appeal to straws.

      I just wanna say that paper straws are lined with PFAS and similar substances, I would NOT use them at all. Mark my words they’ll be banned in the EU in 20 years.

      I’d rather try a pasta straw, if the metal ones are not viable. If using plastic, prefer a more rigid plastic if possible, Policarbonate (like in a Nalgene bottle) is safer than Polyethylene; or at least I would avoid them with hot drinks.

    • lengau@midwest.social
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      12 hours ago

      I hate that restaurants will give me (non bendy) straws even when I specifically ask to not get a straw.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    22 hours ago

    Here in the house we have re-usable, washable plastic straws.

    Out and about I’ll use the disposable straws because the whole turtle-death thing was over-exaggerated. (Microplastics from automotive tires are killing us, though. There are real great filters to be navigated)

    I also just don’t eat out much, especially since the 2020 lockdown.

    • IMALlama@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Not sure how up to date this is, but synthetic fibers are the #1 source of micro plastics, followed by car tires and city dust. Car tires are absolutely a contributor and we should cut our reliance on personal transportation for more reasons than just micro plastics. In addition, we need to move away from polyester, nylon and a slew of other materials.

      Most household furnishings used to be made of natural fibers. These days carpets, couch covers and filling, curtains, clothing, etc are often derived from a petrochemical. I suspect oil companies will continue to pivot into these areas to continue as we very slowly ween ourselves of gasoline.

    • WALLACE@feddit.uk
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      18 hours ago

      We have silicone ones but I don’t like them as they retain the taste of washing up liquid on them

  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    it’s weird how presumably neurotypical people complain about paper straws feeling weird, but my autistic ass couldn’t give less of a shit about their texture.

    do you chew on them, or what?

    • JamieDub86@piefed.social
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      6 hours ago

      My only problem with them is you need a spare.

      That and why is there still a plastic lid, and I dont think that the cup is recyclable due to the coating.

    • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
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      7 hours ago

      And I just hate every straw because they change the texture of the bubbles, which I realize it’s a very autistic thing to say

    • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      The odd time I end up eating fast food and getting a paper straw, it’s the fact that it goes mushy before I finish my drink. I think that’s the texture issue people are talking about.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        11 hours ago

        The really bad experiences I’ve had with straws is at movie theatres. In that case you’re given a pretty big drink in a flimsy cup, and you’re slowly drinking it over a couple of hours.

        There’s no way that the paper straw holds up in those circumstances. You also don’t want to drink without the straw, because the cup is so flimsy that if you try to drink from it like a regular cup/glass it’s likely to collapse. I have permanent metal / rubber straws at home, but of course I never remember to bring them with me when I go to a movie, since I only go a couple of times a year.

        The only solution I’ve found is to take 3-4 paper straws with me, and change them out over the course of the movie.

          • TheLadyAugust@lemmy.world
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            15 hours ago

            Out of curiosity, what businesses are you getting these straws from? The few times I got a paper straw I didn’t really notice an issue other than the texture on my lips. I wonder if those companies are just skipping on the quality. The good paper straws probably cost more than the plastic ones right now and I’d bet their trying to meet the same margins, or tighter.

            • iloveDigit@sh.itjust.works
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              18 hours ago

              But if you’re going to drink faster, the cold drink doesn’t need ice to stay cold, so you don’t need a straw or lid to avoid ice sliding in your face

              This seems like a checkmate tbh

    • UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Not all autism are the same, some with autism will hyperfix on the environment and not give a shit about the texture, like me.

    • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      I think they’ve gotten better, or the ones a lot of people are familiar with are just kinda miserable. I’m most familiar with the ones from when I worked at Disney’s Animal Kingdom like fifteen years ago. They were texturally kinda strange and would get mushy at the top partway through an American-sized soda. They used those straws because the regular plastic ones could have been harmful to some of the animals in the park and I was lead to believe that those straws were pretty common in zoos in general.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        23 hours ago

        I think there was only one time that I had a paper straw and thought that it was good enough. But it felt… expensive? In my mouth. Like you could tell they hated to have to shell out for that. Just to have straws that are possibly as acceptable replacement.

    • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      do you chew on them, or what?

      Maybe… Is it that weird?

      I always chewed on pens in school too. Hmm.

    • smh@slrpnk.net
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      1 day ago

      Not neurotypical, but yes, I do chew on them.

      I ended up going with silicone straws in my household. Mine open up down the side so you can run your finger up them for easy cleaning.

      The metal and hard plastic ones suck for chewing on.

    • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it
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      23 hours ago

      I don’5 really understand complains about paper straws, i never had problems with them!

      :3

      Also there is the nice bonus that after drinking i can chew them while i walk to the trash can

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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    22 hours ago

    I feel like this might be an American problem, with straws being more necessary for drinking in cars, which are all too common there.

    I rarely drive and basically never drink out of a straw, there’s just no point when you can drink directly out of the cup.

    • emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      13 hours ago

      If you want like a mixed drink or a pop out of a glass while lying on the couch or in bed a straw is useful too, thats the only time i ever use them. My fiance likes a ton of ice in everything she drinks so she uses our metal straws for everything. I still prefer drinking out a can or a bottle with a screw on cap for most things when im lying down.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      20 hours ago

      I feel like this might be an American problem

      Fast Food Nation, the paper/plastic cups are flimsy and need a lid for structure.

      We get so used to it that when we eat out, we want straws.

      I’ve never really cared. IF they bring wrapped straws, i’ll generally not open it and stash it in my car for the next time a fast food straw breaks. If it’s open, I use it because it seems more of a waste to throw it away unused.

      There probably is some decent point to the server groping all over the outside of your glass or the dishwasher handling it, but i’m not really a germophobe.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      22 hours ago

      I’m unsure how much benefit reusable straws really are because at a restaurant, they’re probably gonna give you straws anyways and I don’t think they’d put unused ones back in the box, especially post covid.

      • zerofk@lemmy.zip
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        22 hours ago

        The only thing that comes with a straw in the restaurants I visit, is cocktails.

          • AlolanYoda@mander.xyz
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            20 hours ago

            Your comment made me realize that used to be the same for me, but it’s been years since the last time I remember being given a straw. I guess they’re phasing them out

  • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Remember when people lost it because disabled people wouldn’t be able to drink again and then they all died of dehydration after these draconian straw laws severely impacted my day

    • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      I remember when disability rights groups pointed out that these laws were placing extra burden on disabled people that weren’t being put on everyone else.

      These laws accomplish nothing except make liberals feel good that they actually passed some kind of environmental rules. Meanwhile, conservatives are making sure they can legally torture gay kids, let billionaires get away with pedophilia, and burn lots and lots of coal. But we passed straw bans in a couple of cities. Yay us.

        • GlitchyDigiBun@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Yes, and they surround themselves with enough menial nothing-problems to convince you they’re too busy to focus on frivolous things like “human rights” and “the fascist problem.”

          • TriplePlaid@lemmy.zip
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            1 day ago

            This does not convince me that we should redirect all effort away from environmental legislation. In my view human rights are very much intertwined with environmental stewardship.

            • GlitchyDigiBun@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              I agree. So why are we stagnating between fascism and neoliberalism? Neither of those are stewards of either human rights, nor environmentalism. One of the two works very hard to convince you otherwise while stuffing their pockets full of petroldollars.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          1 day ago

          Laws related to plastic straws are like the only environmental legislation that’s been passed recently (aside from the Inflation Reduction Act’s various environmental policies which hell yeah) which is what they’re getting at. Democrats are only able to pass the tiniest of laws to reduce environmental impact and Republicans are out here actively trying to genocide queer and brown people.

          If democrats were just 20% as aggressive as republicans at actually passing policy to advance their agendas this country would be in a far different place. There’s a reason prominent democratic representatives have been talking about how much their constituents are demanding they actually take action and do something, it’s because they haven’t been doing much for the last 20+ years.

          The Fight For 15 has been going on so long that the $15 minimum wage they’ve been demanding is now worth the same as the current federal minimum wage ($7.25/hr) was when The Fight For 15 first started! The fact that they couldn’t even raise the federal minimum wage to match inflation when they had a majority in all branches of government 5 years ago speaks volumes

          If we had politicians in power who actually cared about the environment, we’d have personal vehicle weight limits, all EV new car sales, remote work incentives, ebike and public transit incentives, solar panels on every roof, single use plastic ban, strict emissions limits for industries, a carbon trading system to further financially encourage lower carbon business practices, strict ewaste controls to route working systems back into service that otherwise get junked, etc. Etc. instead all we have is gestures at everything

          • BanMe@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Just to point out tho, liberals have had a trifecta for two 2-year periods out of the last 25, while I do think they could have been a lot more aggressive during that time (especially “let’s compromise on that Obama”) but it’s not like they’ve had 12 years of real control and did nothing.

            • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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              24 hours ago

              That is however assuming they need a trifecta to pass legislation, and that they can only pass effective climate legislation at the federal level. Again this is something republicans have mastered, they take every boring race at every state they can and dig in and try to fuck shit up to advance their shitty agenda. Some states and cities have been relatively aggressive about this, such as California, Oregon and New York, but ultimately they could go further

              Democrats aren’t dreaming big. They aren’t rallying around a noble but difficult to achieve cause like Republicans rallied around banning abortion for the last half century. Like I get it, they also aren’t doing as much blatant saying one thing publicly then passing legislation to do the opposite, and their causes aren’t about making everything more expensive for consumers and enriching large businesses, but god damnit I want to see people start trying to actually make a better world and dream big and make big changes to achieve that

              • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                23 hours ago

                They kind of did need a trifecta because the GOP made their #1 priority to stop literally everything Dems wanted to do, whether they agreed with it or not.

            • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              21 hours ago

              How often did Republicans get a trifecta in the same time period? How does their policy agenda successes compare?

          • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            The right took every small victory they can get and used that momentum to catapult to the next until there was enough momentum to make large changes.

            The left had lots of victory’s that they then spent the following weeks arguing why those were actually losses

            • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              21 hours ago

              What do you call a “victory” that took a lot of political capital and then accomplished basically nothing?

              What did the straw ban do? It’s certainly not reducing waste on its own in any significant way; if every single plastic straw was banned worldwide, its impact would still be tiny in comparison to the overall problem. There was a argument that it would get people to start thinking about how much waste is in their lives. That was six or seven years ago. None of that has come to pass, and I’d argue that it was obviously speculative even before anything took effect.

              You can’t change anything that matters with this nickel and dime policy shit. It is not even worth the effort to push it.

        • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 day ago

          You know that US liberals have shitty success stories about anything anywhere in the last two decades, right?

            • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 day ago

              Sure it does. If government can focus on more than one thing, but there are limited success stories, what does that tell us?

          • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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            24 hours ago

            Well yeah, their base keeps alienating themselves from their own party and not voting for anything outside of clicking with each other in parks.

            Modern leftist are historically one of the most ineffective head up their own ass groups that ever existed.

            Anyone remember that time they convinced millions to stand in a street. Nothing came of it. But they did it. They are so proud they did it. Good times. Maybe they’ll do it again in a year or two. That’s what progress is all about

    • ethaver@kbin.earth
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      1 day ago

      I mean it would actually impact my ability to hydrate certain patients under certain circumstances if there really ever 0 plastic straws anywhere ever.

  • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    I rarely use straws, only in cases where it’s more convenient enough, like when I got a liter of cola at the cinema.

    • Bosht@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      ‘Can I get uuuuuhhhh burger and ah literah cola?’ ‘Burger and liter of cola, it’s for a cop’