BJ Price
It’s getting harder and harder these days to keep up with the changes in the world around us. I read the Dayton Daily News most weekdays at lunch, but apparently I’m not digesting the news as fast as my midday meal.
I was in a meeting with a group of folks last week who are environmentally conscious on a whole different level than me. A young lady mentioned a reusable straw that could be carried on a keychain. I had to ask her to repeat herself to make sure I heard her correctly. Yes, indeed, there is such a thing. A quick look at the website for the company that has produced some other nice logo-imprinted items for our office shows that they do indeed sell reusable straws in dozens of styles. I even went so far as to request a free sample straw from them to get a feel for this trend.
Some reusable straws are made of stainless steel and can telescope for use or collapse for easy storing in their own little containers. Some stainless steel straws are full-length and come with their own travel pouch. Yet other straws are made of flexible silicon that sort of wad up in a little carrying case that looks like a giant pill.
Then there’s the wheat eco-straw kit with a cleaning brush. Now when I hear wheat and straw in the same sentence, I think of the time I spent loading wagons while baling straw for my uncle at the end of the last century. For supper each day, my Aunt Barb made some of the best ham sandwiches I’ve ever had. Back to this wheat eco-straw. It is a blend of 51% wheat straw and 49% polypropylene. Polypropylene is a plastic approved by the FDA for food contact and has a high heat tolerance. On the bottom of containers made from polypropylene you will find a number 5 with a little triangle around it. The eco-straw comes in a carrying case and includes three screw-together straw sections along with a wire-handled pipe-cleaner thingy just long enough for scrubbing the inside of each straw section. Lastly, the eco-straw is biodegradable and suited for handwash only.
They say don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it, but I have some concerns here. I’m familiar with the biodegradable aspects of wheat straw, as in, when wheat stubble gets rained on, it begins to biodegrade. This should not be news to anyone. Without getting too technical, once the straw is wet, the fungus that begins to break it down can produce what looks like sooty black dust on the straw. This black dust covers both balers and people alike. I’d like to know just how biodegradable this eco straw is. What if it decides to biodegrade while I am slurping on a vanilla milkshake? It is marketed as being suitable for cold drinks only, but what if I make the mistake of using it in some hot spiced cider? Would it come out looking like a slinky instead of a straw? These are questions I don’t have answers for.
I don’t know where this is all headed. I shudder to think about having to bring my own hollow drinking tube along with me wherever I go. That might be the last straw.
Reach BJ Price at 937-456-5159 for more information.
