Fatal Accident With Metal Straw Highlights a Risk (nytimes.com) 328
The disturbing death of a woman in Britain renewed a debate that has followed bans on plastic straws around the world. From a report: A British woman was impaled by a metal straw after falling at her home, a coroner said in an inquest this week that highlighted the potential dangers of metal straws. Such straws have surged in popularity as cities, states and even countries have banned single-use plastic straws. A British straw ban will go into effect in April, but the worldwide environmental push against single-use straws has encountered opposition from some caregivers and advocates for people with disabilities. They have voiced worries about the safety of rigid straws and the overall availability of straws for people who are unable to drink without them. [...] Many people with disabilities rely on straws to drink, Ms. Sauder said, but could have difficulties finding them in states and cities, such as California and Seattle, that have banned or restricted single-use straws.
Starbucks plans to eliminate its ubiquitous green plastic straws at 28,000 of its locations around the world in 2020. It's not easy being green for Starbucks, however. In 2016, the coffee chain recalled stainless steel straws sold at its shops because they posed an injury risk. At the time, Starbucks said it had received reports of three children in the United States and one in Canada who had been lacerated by the straws, which were sold with reusable beverage containers. Dentists say that improper use of metal or glass straws can also be bad for teeth. "Clearly, chewing on a metal or glass straw can be hazardous to your teeth and your health," said Dr. Timothy Chase of SmilesNY Cosmetic and Implant Dentistry in New York. "Just like we tell people not to chew on pens." Dr. Chase added that it's important to keep reusable straws clean to avoid infection-causing bacteria.
Starbucks plans to eliminate its ubiquitous green plastic straws at 28,000 of its locations around the world in 2020. It's not easy being green for Starbucks, however. In 2016, the coffee chain recalled stainless steel straws sold at its shops because they posed an injury risk. At the time, Starbucks said it had received reports of three children in the United States and one in Canada who had been lacerated by the straws, which were sold with reusable beverage containers. Dentists say that improper use of metal or glass straws can also be bad for teeth. "Clearly, chewing on a metal or glass straw can be hazardous to your teeth and your health," said Dr. Timothy Chase of SmilesNY Cosmetic and Implant Dentistry in New York. "Just like we tell people not to chew on pens." Dr. Chase added that it's important to keep reusable straws clean to avoid infection-causing bacteria.
Yes, they should definitely outlaw metal straws... (Score:4, Insightful)
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I've been trying to explai
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You don't normally put or hold those things into your mouth as a course of their regular use and operation.
It must be fun to watch you eat with a fork.
Ug, nobody said anything about outlawing them (Score:2)
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https://www.vice.com/en_us/art... [vice.com]
Oh just use paper straws with resin tips (Score:4, Insightful)
Generations used these successfully for years in many countries.
Stop complaining and start doing.
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In other news, Twizzlers are making a comeback.
Actual straw? (Score:2)
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Actual straws are really quite inferior, but waxed paper straws are quite good, and, I guess if you want to use them with hot drinks, resin impregnated straws are justifiable.
OTOH, if you want to turn the straw into a reed instrument, the kind of reed instrument you can make depends on the straw. Paper straws are better for double-reed instruments, and plastic straws are better for single reed. (My wife used to do this on occasion as a demonstration of frequency change with length. She'd play the instrum
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Paper straws have an annoying tendency to start to soften and deform, essentially partially dissolving into the drink if they are sitting in liquid for more than about 15 minutes or so.
Which might be acceptable in some contexts where you might expect to be through your drink quickly anyways. Not so great for others.
I'll stick with metal, thanks. I'll admit it makes a bit of a taste difference, but not as much as the difference in taste as when the pulp from a paper straw starts to get leeched into y
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Paper straws have an annoying tendency to start to soften and deform, essentially partially dissolving into the drink if they are sitting in liquid for more than about 15 minutes or so.
Then stop dawdling.
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Please no. Don't replace one single use piece of junk with another.
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Paper is biodegradable, so it's not the same problem.
People don't matter (Score:3, Insightful)
Facts and where oven plastic comes from don't matter. Convenience doesn't matter. Human safety doesn't matter. Disabled people who need a straw to drink don't matter.
Only vanity matters. The straw ban zealots only care about how they feel about themselves.
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Only vanity matters. The straw ban zealots only care about how they feel about themselves.
Yes because those poor disabled people are incredibly unsafely inconvenienced by paper straws.
Maybe less angry ranting and more realising that the plastic ban has introduced many alternatives and the only reason metal is even mentioned here is because the free market chose this as a desirable option. Oh how inconvenienced I feel after I specifically and purposefully went out to buy one now that they are available.
Now careful that you don't impale yourself on hyperbole. It's coming out of your mouth so thick
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> Only vanity matters. The straw ban zealots only care about how they feel about themselves.
Oh get over yourself. People who want to ban single use plastics see things like a fish they caught has a stomach full of plastic debris and realize there's a problem. Straws are an easy thing to go after because there are alternatives. There's a fast food outlet literally 50 paces from the front door of my office building that switched to paper straws 6 months ago and they've had no problems. Everyone else ca
It's got nothing to do with feeling good (Score:3)
I'll give you this, some of the rank and file on the left fall for it though, which is embarrassin
Green New Deal not about climate (Score:2)
From one of the originators of the Green New Deal [washingtonpost.com]:
So it's only about climate because they
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these are token gestures to environmentalists to distract from growing demands to take real action
Yup, we get toilets that don't flush turds, washing machines that don't get clothes clean, air conditioners/refrigerators [coolingpost.com] that can catch fire [youtube.com], and now straws that can fucking kill you.
The flammable refrigerants is a big pet peeve of mine, since it's a perfect example of virtue signaling and making the little guy suffer, while big industries continue to belch out CO2 with reckless abandon.
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The only place it seems to make sense would be places that serve drinks in places where the plastic straws can easily get loose and cause problems. Places that serve drinks right on the beach or where people will take them on the beach is a good example. Disney originally only banned them in the Animal Kingdom park which makes sense but I wouldn't be surprised if they totally banned them just to preen about it.
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It is virtue signaling to ban plastic straws.
Well good job that you let us all know just how much you despise this for all the right reasons. Thankyou for signalling that, now we know you're the right kind of person.
Focus on ACTUAL problems that MATTER,
The problem with people like you is you will never accept anything if it's not instantly a perfect solution which solves all problems at once and doesn't inconvenience you even slightly in the process.
The plastic bag charge and the straw bans were are good id
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The first is not a problem when drinking cold fluids, the second and third are completely false in my experience. Only the fourth one is right on the money.
I usually try to have one or more reusable metal straws on me whenever I am out of the house not because I advocate for a plastic straw ban, but because the ban has already happened whether I like it or not, so I've adapted (because paper straw
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We need a -1 Gaslighting mod for false comments like this.
How about ban plastic lids? (Score:3)
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Are you kidding. Havn't you seen Kung Fu movies where they throw metal stars. Metal lids would be perfect for throwing at necks
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Just about nothing plastic is actually getting recycled. So it needs to be biodegradable, so that's not a slow-motion catastrophe.
Now I'll grant there are a few biodegradable plastics, but they aren't the ones that are causing the problems. And the ones that come in big inert chunks aren't causing much problem, either. (That doesn't include styrofoam, and it's work alikes, though, because those are made fragile [once the plasticizers evaporate]. It's the still air pockets that provide the insulation. F
Or use a straw made from something else (Score:5, Informative)
There's paper-based ones and silicone-based ones. Or reusable plastic ones. Single-use plastic and metal are not the only options.
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Paper based is useless in mass distribution, it's a petri-dish whenever a mouse or bug pees or poops on it or a raise in moisture or change in temperature happens during shipping.
People mandating these solutions really haven't ever worked in the restaurant suppliers industry. These things have to be treated as another food product if they are biodegradable which makes them much more expensive and energy intensive. The restaurant industry throws massive amounts of food out simply because they are transported
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Paper based is useless in mass distribution, it's a petri-dish whenever a mouse or bug pees or poops on it or a raise in moisture or change in temperature happens during shipping.
If only there was some way to wrap it in a protective covering like we do with single-use plastic straws.
Also, they aren't nearly as moisture and temperature sensitive as you claim, or they'd disintegrate in people's drinks.
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Paper based is useless in mass distribution
Except for that you are disagreeing with reality. Paper straws are already mass distributed. A search for "paper straws wholesale" threw up hundreds of hits. Without much more effort I could find places where the minimum order was 1,000,000 units.
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There are also plastic ones. There's zero effect on the ocean when you don't dump them in the ocean.
Remind me why I need a straw to drink from a glass (Score:2)
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Answer is : be able to drink while walking.
Which is not needed, nor good, but happens to be a big part of the American way of life. People want to always drink and eat at any time of the day that suits them instead of taking a break and sit down.
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>"Answer is : be able to drink while walking. "
Or driving. Or any other activity. Or just the convenience of drinking a cold drink without fighting the ice in your face or the risk of spilling it all over yourself.
Solution: If you don't want to use a plastic straw... DON'T! There, you "saved the world" and without trying to ban it from anyone else. Don't buy them, don't request them, don't grab them.... it is your choice. I have yet to be ANYWHERE where a plastic straw was *compulsory*.
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Didn't say anything different. It's convenience versus pollution. The reason people want to ban it is because otherwise convenience wins and in no time everyone uses them.
The problem is people getting used to it. In the US people are so used to it that they take a plastic cup with a plastic cover with a plastic straw even when they don't need it, because ... why not, and maybe they'll finish their drink walking back to their office. In the EU the practice is much less the norm and maybe the idea is to ban
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>"The problem is people getting used to it. In the US people are so used to it that they take a plastic cup with a plastic cover with a plastic straw even when they don't need it, because ... why not, and maybe they'll finish their drink walking back to their office. In the EU the practice is much less the norm and maybe the idea is to ban it before it spreads too much."
In a free society, we should stress education and information; responsibility and informed choice. Not just banning stuff.
>"I don't
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I guess you understand the value of laws and why making e.g. stealing from others illegal (instead of just teaching them that stealing hurts others) is needed.
Your opinion on this matter boils down to the fact that :
This would need to be supported by more than "let me pollute the planet like I want to". For exam
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>"But just saying "laws are bad because they are reducing my liberty" makes no sense"
Agreed, but I didn't say that. What I said was:
"If society has degraded to a point where anything people shouldn't do must be "illegal", then we really are in trouble."
>"unless you are supporting anarchy (which can be fine -- just be clear with that)."
Of course not. What I am saying is that we should not and need not legislate every little aspect of people's lives. That doesn't mean anarchy. When people can't be e
In Argentina we use them since a century ago (Score:3, Informative)
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19695149 [nih.gov]
Though the culprit in this case is the hot liquid splashing against the esophageal tissue, not the
the whole metal straw thing (Score:5, Informative)
...this is going to be the pet-rock moment of 2019, where future generations are going to look back and wonder: "what the FUCK were they thinking?"
Seriously, waste from this sort of plastic from industrialized western nations is VASTLY outstripped by the microplastics pouring out of our wastewater from washing clothes and from tires on roadways:
So as a first-pass estimate, nearly 90% of microplastics come from those 3 aggregated sources. LOL "straws"
Source:
https://storyofstuff.org/wp-co... [storyofstuff.org]
The idea that carrying around a stupid metal tube to feebly virtue-signal your eco-consciousness while you suck your $8 mocha latte smoothie is so fantastically ironic it beggars belief.
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>"I wonder why so many people like clothes made from plastic."
Because clothes that contain plastic last much, much longer and cost less.
>"Cotton feels better, is even cheaper, and isn't quite as "sweaty". To me it is not any hardship to use cotton almost exclusively (and the few pieces of rain-protecting clothes I own need washing very seldom)."
Cotton also wrinkles horribly. There is a reason that cotton BLENDS (with plastic) are so popular- they are comfortable, have exceptional strength, resist wri
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Seriously, waste from this sort of plastic from industrialized western nations is VASTLY outstripped by the microplastics pouring out of our wastewater from washing clothes and from tires
Yeah exactly. If we can't start tackling the problem in a sorted list based on amount rather than in an easy to achieve low hanging fruit manner we shouldn't do anything at all!
LOL "straws"
Laughing at attempts to make improvements through an easy to change wasteful practice simply because it isn't the biggest source of a problem makes you look like a dick.
The idea that carrying around a stupid metal tube
You're an idiot if you think that's what people are doing.
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> Seriously, waste from this sort of plastic from industrialized western nations is VASTLY outstripped by the microplastics pouring out of our wastewater from washing clothes and from tires on roadways:
I see, you're one of the "this doesn't fix it all, so let's not do anything" types.
If you got cancer and the chemo/radiation treatment only had a 20% chance of a full cure would you just throw up your hands and say "Well, that's pointless. Guess I'll just die, never mind" ?
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Oh this is a rant on this retarded plastic straw ban!
The whole plastic-straw ban is a dumb idea and the followers and religious supporters of this idea are even dumber.
I have dozens of pictures of garbage washed up along numerous beaches in the morning and I have yet to see one-single-straw. I'm looking at the pics now now and most of the plastic garbage is bottles, bottle caps, what looks like toothpaste tubes or makeup bottles, plastic wrapping, those mini-hangs that stores use to hand items on the rack,
That's the point (Score:2)
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Thanks for the interesting link, but that document doesn't support your point.
Primary microplastics make up between 15% and 31% of all the microplastics (section 4.1). Figures 3 and 10 also show that secondary microplastics constitutes a bigger share of all the microplastics released in the ocean and the environment in general.
Metal straws are not energy efficient or green (Score:4, Informative)
Plastic straws are cheap for a reason, they cost 15kJ to produce and maybe twice that to recycle.
A metal straw costs 2000kJ or more to produce, cleaning it costs at least 100-500kJ if you can batch them in a dishwasher and you should actually autoclave them to make sure they're safe to use in restaurant settings.
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and you should actually autoclave them to make sure they're safe to use in restaurant settings.
I've got some bad news about everything else they put on your table in restaurants....
Quick, more band-aids! (Score:2)
Wait, are you saying that knee-jerk solutions won't actually address systemic problems and will only cause unanticipated downstream consequences?
Ehhhh, not sure we can work with that. Howsabout we just pass some more knee-jerk measures to to fix those consequences whenever they crop up?
I think that will make everyone happier in the end.
Plastic straws can also impale (Score:2)
Happened to a friend of mine when I was a kid. It didn't kill him, but it easily could have.
Bring back Silly Straws (Score:2)
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Ahh, we'll just call them metal safety straws..
Sippy cups for eberyone! (Score:2)
It's the only way to be sure.
Mandate Safety Goggles!! (Score:2)
You babies (Score:3)
Worried about some little metal straw. You gotta learn to live like this couple from Oklahoma, who were recently arrested while driving in a stolen car with an open bottle of Kentucky Deluxe bourbon, a gun, a rattlesnake, and a canister of uranium.
I mean, who wants to live forever, right?
Link (Score:2)
https://boingboing.net/2019/07... [boingboing.net]
I have the answer! (Score:2)
Sippy cups for everyone!
I don't drink with straws at all and don't really understand why normally abled people would need them. If you're not in your car, drink from an open cup without a straw. If you're in your car, use something like a reusable coffee cup that has a cover. If you skip the straw, you can also skip the plastic cover that goes on the cup.
Single use plastics are insane. We have to come up with a better way to do what single use plastics are doing for us now..
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Easier said than done if you happen to be walking at the time.
The liquid will slosh back and forth, and if you have the cup tipped more than just the tiniest bit just so that you can actually drink the contents, there is a every chance of spilling it.
Of course, a cover like what you mentioned above solves the issue.
But so does a straw.
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Dishwashers (Score:2)
Whenever you stack a dishwasher, point all the cutlery down inside the cutlery basket. It's *so* easy to trip over/onto the door and you'll impale yourself or someone else. Much more dangerous and responsible for more deaths/injuries than a single freak metal straw.
Kids too... they run round the kitchen without looking, trip face-first into the upturned cutlery. You can still lose an eye but at least you're unlikely to die landing on the back blunt end of a fork.
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Perhaps we should do away with all metal cutlery, then. Just pick that steak up with your hand and rip pieces off of it using your teeth.
Be careful not to bite your tongue, though. Hey maybe we need to do away with teeth as well.
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I think we all have at one time or other
I can honestly say, that has not happened to me. But of course, I drink from a straw with my finger tips at the tip entering my mouth.
metal straws are a solution to nothing
I agree with this.
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People poke themselves with straws all the time, especially if you expect the straw to be in one place but it shifts and you don't notice (perhaps while reading or walking). Plastic straws will give if they hit a tooth or something but a metal straw will not so I would guess that chipped teeth is a major hazard with the things. I have hit myself in the eye before with plastic but a glancing blow and pretty much my eyelashes blocked it, doubt I would have gotten so lucky with a metal one.
Re:absolutely (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh BS. This was a freak accident. Lots of people have 8-10 inch long metal chopsticks in their homes that they reuse, how many deaths have those caused. Or scissors, knives, long nails, curtain rods, etc. Should we ban all those too? Freak accidents happen. One guy even drowned in his pet's water dish after falling and hitting his head on the counter. Should we ban pets now too?
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The metal straws I have seen are significantly thicker than a normal plastic or paper straw, and have a rounded edge. I can't imagine how hard one would have to fall on this thing to be impaled on one of these to cause a fatal injury.
You might as well ban all metal cutlery with this logic.
Re:absolutely (Score:5, Insightful)
The metal straws I have seen are significantly thicker than a normal plastic or paper straw, and have a rounded edge. I can't imagine how hard one would have to fall on this thing to be impaled on one of these to cause a fatal injury.
You might as well ban all metal cutlery with this logic.
They're more dangerous because of how they're positioned during their designed manner of usage.
Unless your metal knife is regularly positioned pointy-end-up and you interact with it by staring at it from six inches away, metal cutlery would seem to be in a different category for anyone over the age of five.
Also, you don't need to fall "hard" on it. "Falling" from any range of more than a foot or so (say, collapsing at a table with your head falling forward into a cup in front of you) would be more than sufficient to send it through your eye socket like this.
Have you ever seen a metal straw in person? Trust me, you'll want to treat them cautiously. Living in California I've since been introduced to them and frankly it's unnerving to even be around them in use.
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Unless your metal knife is regularly positioned pointy-end-up and you interact with it by staring at it from six inches away, metal cutlery would seem to be in a different category for anyone over the age of five.
How, exactly, do you use a fork?
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Unless your metal knife is regularly positioned pointy-end-up and you interact with it by staring at it from six inches away, metal cutlery would seem to be in a different category for anyone over the age of five.
How, exactly, do you use a fork?
Somewhat angled, with the top facing off to my right. How do you use a fork?
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Rather similar to how I'd use a metal straw. Pointy end goes into the mouth repeatedly while delivering food.
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Rather similar to how I'd use a metal straw. Pointy end goes into the mouth repeatedly while delivering food.
a) Yes, you can stab yourself in the mouth with your fork if you're clumsy.
b) A fork's tines are only so deep (maybe an inch or two). Even at worst case, they would only penetrate so far in.
c) You'd have to faint or collapse while you were in the split second or so it was pointing at you, *plus* you'd have to retain enough motor control for your hand to keep it properly positioned while your head lowered.
Don't get me wrong, a fork or a knife can certainly be dangerous too. But metal straws are 6 inches of u
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But metal straws are 6 inches of uncompressable, dense steel with more penetrative ability than rebar at construction sites.
And here I thought your earlier comments were dumb.
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But metal straws are 6 inches of uncompressable, dense steel with more penetrative ability than rebar at construction sites.
And here I thought your earlier comments were dumb.
Rebar is thicker and more dense; metal straws are smaller and have a narrow cross-section. I'm holding a metal straw in my hand at the moment (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D8D85L6/). Poking myself with rebar would hurt, poking myself with this would puncture skin. Through the eye and I'm dead. Not sure why this is hard to understand. (Yes, at velocity they're both deadly; that's not the point.)
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Wouldn't simply putting a curve (bend) near the top of the straw remove that danger? Like the plastic "bendy" straws, but a permanent bend.
Some of them have it; I do think it probably does help with safety. Compare: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61hUueAth7L._SL1000_.jpg [ssl-images-amazon.com] from https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D8D85L6/ [amazon.com]
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I don't see why we can't just use the same type of paper from a parafin Dixie cup for straws. Just coat it on both sides.
The paper straws used by some restaurants now are very similar to this. Unfortunately, they suck as straws (no pun intended). Liquid eventually penetrates the coating and they become so soft that they collapse when you're trying to suck a fluid up through it. If you don't finish your drink in about five minutes, they're basically useless and you have to ask for a new one.
This whole banning of straws thing is, frankly, absurd. If plastic straws are ending up in the ocean, the problem is littering... not the
Re: absolutely (Score:5, Informative)
This whole banning of straws thing is, frankly, absurd. If plastic straws are ending up in the ocean, the problem is littering... not the straws.
Evidentially, plastic straws (and many other plastics) are ending up in our environment in huge numbers, and having a large impact. Evidentially, we are doing a terrible job controlling littering. Its not absurd to remove the cause of a problem, it's the best thing you can do.
The Hierarchy of hazard controls [wikipedia.org] has elimination as the most effective control. Asking people to stop littering is at the other end of the control spectrum.
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Evidentially, we are doing a terrible job controlling littering.
The US and Europe are doing a pretty great job. Less than 1% of the marine plastics pollution come from these places,
and nearly 99% come from the Asian and African continents.
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Interesting... a reply from an Anonymous Troll.
Makes sense that the real liars on this topic would have the cowardice to post anonymously.
By the way, anyone who cares to get some more exact numbers can see the data and charts.. just a Google search away.
See: Which countries polluting the oceans the most [statista.com]
And this [ourworldindata.org]
which clearly illustrates what is going on here: Mismanaged Plastic wastes for 2010 - United States: 0.86%, Canada 0.02%, Portugal 0.05%; France 0.08%; Germany 0.1%; Poland 0.05%; Finlan
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This whole banning of straws thing is, frankly, absurd. If plastic straws are ending up in the ocean, the problem is littering... not the straws.
Yeah. But you can't stop littering. Littering has been illegal everywhere for decades, but that doesn't stop it. What does stop it is a ban on the use.
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The metal straws I have seen are significantly thicker than a normal plastic or paper straw, and have a rounded edge. I can't imagine how hard one would have to fall on this thing to be impaled on one of these to cause a fatal injury.
You might as well ban all metal cutlery with this logic.
Not really. The inside of your throat is soft and squishy and you can do a hell of a lot of damage even with a normal plastic straw. Additionally people don't typically walk around their houses with knives or forks in their mouths, quite the opposite from people standing around drinking cocktails.
Re:absolutely (Score:5, Funny)
Additionally people don't typically walk around their houses with knives or forks in their mouths
I'm a PIRATE! I always have my cutlass in my mouth, you insensitive clod!
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The bone in the eye socket is paper thin. It would not take much force at all to puncture it with a steel straw.
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Re: absolutely (Score:2)
Or, you are staring at your mobile device while walking and drinking and trip over your feet.
Brings back memories of people so stupid they canâ(TM)t walk and chew gum at the same time.
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Maybe have some kind of flange around the end (or ends?) so that this kind of thing is less likely.
Could just go for a sippy cup...
Re: absolutely (Score:3, Insightful)
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Please stop using the term "politically correct" to mean "progressive". It doesn't mean that.
"Politically correct" is usually employed as a pejorative to mean "I want to cast what you say in a negative light, but I'm too lazy to actually lay out a logical argument for my viewpoint." Politically correct is a meaningless, lazy term that simply means "I'm right, you're wrong." In addition to requiring no thought, the term has the huge advantage via its lack of meaning and content of being logically unassailable.
Re: absolutely (Score:4, Insightful)
It isn't any of those things. Progressive is the opposite of conservative.
In a political context, the meaning of conservative (without attaching it to any political party etc) is "slow change, where change in the population culture is the driver for political change". It can be boiled down to "don't fix what ain't broke".
The meaning of progressive is the opposite. "Political solutions should be the driver of population culture". It can be boiled down to "We can do better than what we are currently doing".
Both ideologies have had successes and failures, largely dependent on the topic.
Given that politics are commonly emotionally charged, the associations of conservative and progressive usually depend on the person you ask. But in the unbiased definition, there is no topic associated with either term. For instance, the legality of homosexuality is a conservative value in much of Europe, while in many places in the Middle East it would be a progressive value. Same with women's suffrage. In the US, the right to own combat weapons is a conservative value while in much of Europe it would be a progressive value.
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...except a lot of that waste in the third world comes from them illegally dumping waste from the West. The west doesn't know how to actually recycle this stuff, so they just pay third world shady companies that claim they'll recycle it, and they dump or burn it instead.
The west needs to decide what to do with its waste first before it can blame the third world.
Re:absolutely (Score:4, Interesting)
The gigantic mass of plastic in the ocean is not the result of using plastic straws in the US or EU. Nearly all of it is from third world monkeys who don't properly manage their waste.
The part you left out, is a lot of that waste is first-world waste we sold to these third world countries (or paid them to take it, either way. Both type of transactions have/do occurred.)
However you're right. It's third-world countries mismanaging waste that's lead to plastic pollution to the degree it's escalated to. Not that we're 100% innocent of the entire thing.
But you know, a lot of that did come from us, and we do bear some of the responsibility for it being mismanaged.
You wouldn't turn over your hard earned cash to a financial manager you were pretty sure wasn't going to do a very good job. We kinda did that with our garbage. We turned it over and figured that's the last we'll see of that. Well, it's in the ocean now.
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Here you can get straw's made from paper material or limestone.
Real men use straws made of depleted uranium . . . like anti-tank shells.