Reusable Straws Vs Single Use Straws
If you have been following us for a while or if you are cool as shit and are an OG then you know one thing about SUCKITUPstraws we are Pretty staunch on Reuse Not Replace
Not just for the environment, (you also know we tell it how it is). The whole point of our businesses is to make reusable alternatives as convenient and as affordable as single use items right? We do this by being honest, transparent and straight up. So yes for obvious reasons sherlock reusing instead of replacing is good for the environment but its also good for you, local businesses and the environment.
Lets look at the players in the game and see who is the all-rounder?
Reasons for not using single use plastic alternatives have been heard and are obvious, so simply put – don’t use them (even if your state, country provides them). That one use is really costing 100 years for it to break down, you might not are about the impact of that one use for eating one meal of 900 for that year but your kids, nieces, neffs, grandkids, neighbours kids do when they are walking over mountains of rubbish because you enjoyed that one feed 100 years ago.
So lets talk bans, we here in Australia are all going to be under a single use plastic ban by 2025. We are not going to get caught up on whether you agree or not, simply put no one cares it’s a change so adapt and go with it. Lets look at the alternatives post plastic ban…
Paper .5/3
But what about the paper alternative, its great and can break down for the environment in some cases less than a year. That’s a win for the environment. So how about for you? How does it stack up for you…
Taste?? Listening to my customers, yeah nah. Listening to your customers if you’re in the hospitality industry, yeah nah. The reality is as much as it feels good to help the environment out your customers, your staff heck you don’t like the paper straw as an alternative so why sell it and insult your products taste. It’s the taste of paper, or bamboo, or the ice cream stick as it hits your tongue 🤮 it sends heeby jeebys down my spine just thinking of it.
If you are a business what about cost… well on average the cost of paper straw is $0.06c and if you are anything like event cinemas you hand out 6 x paper straws so your customers don’t come back and tell you how shit paper straws are . so in some cases your COGS for a drink could be as high as $0.36c a serving!
So with all that in mind for the environment, yes sort of if you use one paper straw per drink. For you (taste) nope not at all, for businesses and sustainability – not an alternative affordable alternative so not gonna work.
Compostable, biodegradable 1/3 –again if you have been following me and listening to our rants for a while you know my feel on this… what annoys me about these straws is the lack of education and information out there for them, did you know some types of these straws need a facility an actual facility to process them – they can’t go into the landfill as suggested as they wont break down they need to be heated. And some even need a chemical to help “breakdown the plastic.” So that’s a no for the environment, also they are more expensive than paper and because you have to separate them it screws up business especially busy café process so are they good for a business? That’s a big NO rubber ducky.
Reusable (Metal, Glass, Silicone) 3/3
I know you think we are bias when it comes to this but trust and listen as we put it through the tests as we did with the other alternatives because fair is fair.
Taste – So its not secret some people don’t like the taste of metal, not a good start to the rankings 0/1. However, we do have these silicone caps for those who don’t like the taste or are worried about chipping teeth or the danger of the straw. For straw chewers (surprisingly not just the kids) then this cap is perfect because you have the sturdiness of the metal but the soft silicone cap. My understanding is that people love drinking from a glass straw so that’s a pass here and the silicone is BPA free so its like drinking from a single use plastic straw any way. All bases covered so Reusable Straws get a 1/1 for taste.
Environment.- it’s the best alternative out there because its reusable, reusable straws remove over 500 straws for every one brought. We use 10 Million straws a day here in Australia so with a reusable straw that number would drop to 20,000 a day! That’s crazy… can you imagine 10,000,000 paper, not so biodegrable and compostable straws being removed from our waste? A DAY! Yep so I am just going to sum that up with a point because as far as the environment and sustainability goes nothing beats reusable items.
Business- yes reusable alternatives for business WERE and expensive option. Not so much any more. We have worked with over a hundred cafes and restaurants across Aussie to develop the worlds first and only way to clean 100 reusable straws at once. Meaning our reusable straw pack is the same as purchasing 35,000 single use straws (say they are paper and at 0.6c a straw) are $2000 cheaper! We have ways around theft and getting them to pay for themselves as well so we have covered all basis. Because you are reusing you are also following the same processes as you do for cutlery so its more efficient for your staff 😊 You also are pleasing your customers because they don’t want paper straws any more and your publicly therefore increasing your brand image helping the environment and become a eco conscious cafe or restaurant. Which includes you in an $1.2 Trillion industry (Green Hospitality market segment). So for businesses we are going to have to give this a point as well.
There you have it we have done the alternatives against three critical factors and our in depth 😉 analysis shows our readers and us that it really is a no brainer… For all concerned from the environment to joe bloggs to jane doe’s business there is only one option that scores 100% a 3/3 on our score card. And that is REUSEABLE STRAWS.