Plastic straws suck! Made popular in the 1960’s as a novelty item, the plastic straw has become an integral part of our day to day lives with people expecting a plastic straws with every single drink.
In the United States alone, over one hundred and eighty-two billion, five hundred million single-use plastic straws are used and discarded every year with most landing up in our oceans and landfills, never to be used for their original purpose again.
Globally around eight million tons of plastic land up in the ocean every year, and straws make up just 0.025% of that. So why the HUGE focus on straws? Besides, the obvious environmental impact plastic straws have it’s actually pretty simple. Eliminating plastic straw usage rarely requires a drastic change in behaviour and a straw is something you can easily do without, but if you really can’t #SkipTheStraw you now have other options.
I have compiled a list of some of the reusable straws available locally.
Stainless Steel
- Sipstix www.sipstix.co.za
- ForEVA Straw www.forevastraws.co.za
- Cultivate Conscious Living www.cultivateconsciousliving.co.za
- BetterStraws www.betterstraws.co.za
Glass
- Restraw www.restraw.co.za
- The Green Straw Company www.thegreenstrawcompany.co.za
- Glass Sipper www.glasssipper.co.za
- Stream Straws www.streamstraws.com
- Suck It Straws www.suckitstraws.com
Bamboo
- We Care Collective www.wecarecollective.com
- The Green Straw Company www.thegreenstrawcompany.co.za
- Monkey Straw Co Facebook page
- Earth Warrior www.earthwarrior.co.za
Paper straws are also available at most retailers but I am not a fan of these because they tend to get soggy and they are still single use items.
These are just a few of the options I came across, If you prefer buying from the bigger retailers both Wellness Warehouse and Faithful to Nature have a selection available. I would suggest looking around and finding an option that suits your budget and lifestyle.
So make that change and ditch the plastic straw!
Featured image by Adrianna Calvo from Pexels. Other image from www.cultivateconsciousliving.co.za
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