Plastic straws have begun disappearing from some taverns and restaurants as bartenders, liquor companies and others argue that too many end up in the ocean

Diageo, which has stopped using plastic straws, served cocktails with paper straws at an event this month in New York City.

Diageo, which has stopped using plastic straws, served cocktails with paper straws at an event this month in New York City. PHOTO: CINDY ORD/GETTY IMAGES

By Cara Lombardo

March 19, 2018 10:32 a.m. ET

44 COMMENTS

Jennifer Call was aghast recently when the server at her go-to Asheville, N.C., pizza spot delivered her Diet Coke.

It was missing the straw!

A straw

A straw

The server explained she had stopped giving them out automatically. Having worked in food service, Ms. Call says, she has memories of lipstick lingering after dishwashing.

“Let me see your glass racks,” she says, “and then I’ll decide if I don’t want a straw.” Besides, she says, drinking through a straw is more fun.

She requested one and got it.

Ms. Call, 30 years old, was caught up in a war on straws declared by a growing cadre of bartenders, liquor companies, celebrities and environmentalists. They argue too many of the plastic drinking devices—from big soda straws to little cocktail numbers—end up in the ocean.

“We see straws as a ‘gateway plastic’ in understanding the pollution problem,” said actor Adrian Grenier in a news release championing the cause.

The Scotch Whisky Association and the makers of Absolut vodka and Tanqueray gin have announced plans to ban plastic straws and stirrers from their events.

Celebrities such as Mr. Grenier have pushed the cause on social media, encouraging people to #StopSucking. A California lawmaker has introduced a pending bill that would outlaw servers’ giving plastic straws to diners by default, and several U.S. cities are banning them or curtailing their use.

Bartender Claire Sprouse, 33, travels the country teaching fellow servers how to create less waste. “The first thing we try to talk about,” the Brooklyn, N.Y., mixologist says, “is that you don’t always have to stick a straw in something.”

Ms. Sprouse recommends paper straws to her customers. “The biggest complaint about paper straws is that they disintegrate. I just tell people to drink faster.”

Nick Jackson, who mixes drinks at Ward III in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, says he deploys plastic straws only under certain conditions, such as when a mint-leaf garnish would tickle a patron’s face.

It isn’t clear if the efforts are crimping the straw market. The Plastics Industry Association doesn’t have straw data. Straw maker Fuling Global Inc. says it supplies about 5 billion straws a year to some of the country’s largest fast-food chains and estimates U.S. consumers use 20 billion plastic straws annually. Fuling CEO Xinfu Hu says that the company has made prototypes of biodegradable plastic straws and thinks the government should promote use of such straws.

Mia Freis Quinn, a spokeswoman for the association, says the plastic straw’s detractors should focus on finding ways to recycle and recover them. Plastic straws, she says, play vital roles in everything from her children’s class projects to personal hygiene. “My dentist says if you’re not drinking water, you better be using a straw.”

Bartenders Chad Arnholt and Claire Sprouse, who run a bartending consulting firm, encourage bartenders to cut back on plastic straws.

Bartenders Chad Arnholt and Claire Sprouse, who run a bartending consulting firm, encourage bartenders to cut back on plastic straws. PHOTO: KATIE HOSS

The American Dental Association suggests using straws to prevent tooth erosion, recommending using a straw “palatally,” placing the end behind the teeth.

Straws date back to at least 2,500 B.C., when wealthy Sumerians likely shared pots of beer using metal straws more than 4 feet long, says William Hafford, a University of Pennsylvania researcher. Other iterations were of reeds and paper. Plastic straws created a splash in the 1960s because they were cheap but didn’t fall apart.

An impression of a cylinder seal, found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, in modern day Iraq, shows long drinking straws.

An impression of a cylinder seal, found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, in modern day Iraq, shows long drinking straws. PHOTO: PENN MUSEUM

Researchers believe the Sumerians used straws such as this one to avoid foam on beer.

Researchers believe the Sumerians used straws such as this one to avoid foam on beer. PHOTO: PENN MUSEUM

The straw that stirred the drink, by many accounts, was a fourth-grader in Vermont named Milo Cress, who in 2011 decided to quantify how many straws end up discarded. “I just started noticing the vast amount of straws that would come with every meal,” says Mr. Cress, now a high-school junior. “You wind up with piles of straws on the table.”

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He and his mother called straw manufacturers and estimated U.S. diners throw away 500 million straws daily, or more than 1.5 a person. The figure became the go-to straw statistic, appearing in hundreds of media reports, corporate sustainability initiatives and on the National Park Service website.

A 2015 YouTube video, “Sea Turtle with Straw up its Nostril,” gave the movement a mascot. The video of marine biologists extracting the straw has been viewed more than 19 million times.

Bacardi Ltd. cited the 500 million estimate when it became one of the first spirits makers to take a stand against plastic straws and swizzle sticks, banning them two years ago from its events. A Bacardi spokeswoman says the initiative spares more than 1 million straws a year.

Bartender Nick Jackson tries to avoid using plastic straws, except where a garnish like mint leaves might tickle a patron's face.

Bartender Nick Jackson tries to avoid using plastic straws, except where a garnish like mint leaves might tickle a patron's face. PHOTO: CARA LOMBARDO/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Pernod Ricard SA, which sells Absolut, also cited the estimate when it followed suit, saying the average straw is sipped from for 20 minutes and can take more than 200 years to break down. Pernod’s Director of Sustainability and Responsibility, John Tran, says: “We have asked our agencies to remove them from images.”

At a March event by Smirnoff, owned along with Tanqueray by Diageo PLC, which also dropped plastic straws, guests downed Moscow Mules quickly to prevent paper straws from disintegrating.

Mr. Cress’s mother, Odale Cress, says raising awareness has been great. She doesn’t like the idea of completely banning straws, preferring policies that don’t give straws automatically. “If people ban straws, I don’t really know what’s going to happen with milkshakes.”

New York City resident Chris McCoy, 58, says he is “adamant” about getting a plastic straw if a restaurant doesn’t offer one. He refuses to drink from glass rims other mouths have touched.

“There’s so many more communicable diseases,” says Mr. McCoy, who works for a tour-bus company. “Your imagination goes into play.”

Jason Rammelsberg

@gr8ramses

Dear Seattle, your weak soggy paper straws are horrible. You should go to your room and think about your life choices!

6:55 PM - Feb 2, 2018

See Jason Rammelsberg's other Tweets

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A soggy straw was what Jason Rammelsberg, 43, ended up with in Seattle, where plastic straws will be outlawed come July. The software-company manager’s encounter with a paper straw wasn’t bad for 10 minutes—until it started absorbing his Coke Zero. “Kinda near the end, I just said forget it, took the lid off and drank it like a man.”

Some bars use metal straws but say patrons like to steal them.

Bars that have cut back on straws say some patrons didn’t seem to notice. Even when the straws are there, people don’t tend to use them, says Chad Arnholt, 36, a bartender who with Ms. Sprouse runs a sustainability-consulting firm. “Most people just take the straw and they do that move where they pinch it underneath their index finger.”

Fabienne Alexis gave up straws voluntarily. To down frozen margaritas, the 41-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., marketer learned to tilt the glass to prevent blended ice from spilling on her face.

“I love to drink a lot more than I like the straw,” she says.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3923066&forum_id=2#35639763)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3923066&forum_id=2#35640002)