Now, you might wonder why straws, in particular, have come under such intense fire. After all, they're a lot smaller than, say, water bottles or soda bottles or even plastic shopping bags. So why are so many green groups targeting them?
The answer is twofold. First, they're ubiquitous; and second, they're not recyclable. As Popular Science explains, although they're typically made of recyclable polypropylene, their small size and weight actually work against them; they slip right the cracks in the conveyor belts used in large-scale plastic recycling. And since polypropylene floats, unlike the heavier PETE plastic used in water and soda bottles, a lot of these plastic straws end up adrift in the ocean, where they can cause harm to wildlife.
When I first decided to try reducing straw use back in April, I decided that, rather than rushing out and buying a set of reusable silicone straws, I'd first try to use up all the old straws I'd brought home over the years and rinsed out. (Since they were going to end up in the trash eventually, I figured, I might as well get as much use out of them as possible first.) So I tucked a straw from my collection inside a pennywhistle that I was already carrying around in my purse.
Unfortunately, when my purse was snatched last month, I lost both the whistle and the straw. So in order to carry on with my straw-reuse experiment, I was going to need a new container. I found some reusable sleeves for drinking straws online, but they cost $12 apiece—twice as much as a whole set of the silicone drinking straws. That seemed like a ridiculous amount to pay for something that was basically just a little tube of fabric. Surely, I figured, I could make something similar with the materials in my scrap bin.
So I headed downstairs and dug through my remnants, looking for something I could easily make into a suitable straw sleeve. The first thing that caught my eye was an old pair of shorts, made of a sort of printed cotton fabric. They'd worn out in the thigh area, but there was plenty of good fabric around the hem, and it occurred to me that if I simply cut off a section of that hem, it would be exactly the right size to store a straw.
To make sure this would accommodate any straw in my collection, I grabbed the longest one I could find, measured it against the hem of the shorts, and cut off a section long enough to cover it. By starting at the side seam, I was able to give it a ready-sewn end, so I didn't even have to sew it up at the bottom. All I have to is slip the straw into the sleeve and then tuck in the end of the fabric above it to keep it from sliding back out again.I've even discovered that this DIY straw sleeve is wide enough to accommodate the bigger-barreled straws used with bubble tea, one of my favorite to-go treats. Since the bubble-sized straws are a little too wide to fit in a standard to-go cup, I decided to carry both a bubble-sized straw and a regular straw, with the narrower one tucked inside the wider one, which in turn is tucked inside the sleeve. So now, no matter where I stop off for a drink, I'll have just the right straw to drink it with, and I won't need to take a new one.
Of course, as luck would have it, since I came up with this oh-so-clever solution I haven't bought a single to-go drink anywhere, so I haven't really had a chance to deploy my new sustainable toy. But I know it's ready when I need it.
So, for anyone out there who's been thinking about switching to reusable straws, but couldn't figure out how to carry one: wonder no more. This trick would probably work just fine with any old pair of pants or shorts you happen to have sitting around in your rag bag. And if you don't have a rag bag, you could just buy the cheapest pair you can find at your local thrift shop and cut it up; it'll still be cheaper than buying one of those fancy straw sleeves on Etsy.
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