Grasping At Straws

Marvin Stone, perhaps more than any other person, deserves credit for making artificial straws useful and popular. But he doesnt deserve the
blame for what straws have become. Stone, a serial inventor who was known for manufacturing a variety of products with a cylinder shape, such
as cigarette holders. Born in Ohio in 1842, but based in Washington, D.C., for much of his life, he launched his career as a journalist, but
eventually followed his fathers inventive spirit into the realm of manufacturing. Being a D.C. resident, he was a big fan of mint juleps, a drink
popularized in the city during the 19th century by famed Kentucky Senator Henry Clay. Stone would order the drinks at Amans, a well-known
restaurant in D.C. during the era though he was disappointed by the rye straws, which had a negative effect on his drink.
Yes, thats right, before plastic straws, we used straws made of rye grass produced naturally, from the ground. The manufacturing process,
according to a The Small Grains, a book by Mark Alfred Carleton, was closer to wheat than plastic. After bleaching, the straws are assorted by
hand, each individual stalk being examined, and the imperfect ones removed, Carleton explained. They are then cut, the five lower joints only
being utilized for drinking purposes. The sheaths are then removed, and the straw washed and bound into bundles ready for the market. The
rye straw, while the first widely used variety of drinking straw, had some significant problems including that the straws affected the taste of the
drink and that they had a tendency to disintegrate into the beverage, leaving sediment at the bottom of the drink.
Stone was just the guy to fix the problem. He was already making cigarette holders at his nearby factory, and had recently patented a fountain
pen holder, so he knew a thing or two about building cylinder-shaped objects. So he wrapped a sheet of paper around a pencil, added some
glue, and suddenly he had invented the paper straw. He gave his initial supply to Amans for his own personal use, but found that people he ran
into at the bar were impressed enough with his invention that they wanted their own. That led Stone to patent the device, and within a few years,
he had cornered the market on paper straws, which became popular with the rise of soda fountains at pharmacies.
According to an 1889 article from The Lafayette Advertiser, Stones factory was producing 2 million straws per day not long after he filed for that
patent. And when he died in 1899, Stone was well-regarded in obituaries. Although few pharmacists have had the pleasure of personally
meeting Mr. Stone, his name is, nevertheless, known wherever there is a soda fountain, the pharmacy trade publication The Spatula wrote at
the time. But the straws had a problem simply, they werent as durable as plastic, and while they didnt negatively affect the taste of the soda
like rye straws did, they did eventually disintegrate in the beverages. By the 1960s, plastic straws, which initially carried a sense of novelty for
the public because they could be made clear, had usurped the paper version entirely.
Good for plastic. Bad for the environment. In 2017, were perhaps more aware than ever of the weaknesses of the plastic straw, bendable or not.
And more than one entrepreneur has tried to create new alternatives that solve the problems of both paper and plastic.
Perhaps the most intriguing natural option for straw drinking is the bamboo straw. The company Brush With Bamboo, which makes a bamboo-
based toothbrush (and sports support from Ed Begley Jr. on its website), also sells a set of bamboo drinking straws, which are handmade in
India and designed to be reused for many years. As a result, the company sells a 12-pack of bamboo straws for $20 or more than a dollar a
straw. Other materials, like metal, have also become common straw vectors. And more than one small-scale manufacturer, like the Michigan
company Strawesome, has tried selling straws made from glass.
On the disposable front, the primary alternative thats revealed itself is corn, which has perhaps gotten the closest in terms of disposability and
flexibility. Eco-Products, a Certified B Corporation, sells plastic materials to stores and other retailers made from Ingeo, a biopolymer often
produced from corn thats compostable and renewable.
While not horribly cheap compared to standard plastic straws they sell for about a
quarter a pop in small quantities Eco-Products compostable straws are a lot better
for the environment.
And hey, if you cant beat em, eat em the straws that is. Starbucks earned a whole
lot of buzz a couple years ago after it started selling cookie straws to go with its
Frappuccinos, and its not a phenomenon thats completely unheard of candy
straws and beef straws are things that exist. But perhaps the most natural approach
to edible straw-making might be ice straws. Just make sure you dont want a refill.
Now, while Ted Turner no longer has the level of influence and power he once did
he no longer owns Turner Broadcasting, and he literally gave a billion dollars to the
United Nations in 1997, he does own a lot of land, and that land contains a lot of
bison. And that means that hes well suited for being a restaurant entrepreneur.
Teds Montana Grill, a chain he started in 2002, is quietly an environmental maverick the entire chain was built around the idea of ensuring the
bison would stick around for generations to come by building business value around the animal. Despite the fact youre eating bison, its actually
hugely beneficial for the species long-term survival because theres a business case for investing in ranching bison. But beyond that, Turner
and his business partner George McKerrow Jr. saw an opportunity to build an eco-friendly legacy even greater than that of Captain Planet.
I remember growing up with a paper straw, McKerrow explained in an interview. It collapsed a lot, but heck, it was better for the environment
than a plastic straw, which might be in a landfill for a hundred-plus years, or for eternity. McKerrow looked online for info and soon found himself
on the phone with the owner of Precision Products Group the parent company of Paramount Tube, the direct descendant of Stones
manufacturing company. McKerrow noted that paper straws hadnt been manufactured anywhere since 1970, but that the firm was willing to pay
top-dollar to get those straws. Precision had the equipment around, but it had fallen into disuse. But inspired by the phone call, the company
pledged to check to see what was possible.
About two weeks later, he got back to me, and he said, We found that machine, and I could hear it in his voice that he was really excited,
McKerrow continued. He said, The engineers think that they can make it work.
And they did. Teds Montana Grill became the first company to use paper straws in more than 30 years, but the quality issues with the straws
made from paper and coated in beeswax were still apparent, leading to customer complaints. McKerrow got a hold of Precision again, only to
find that the phone call a couple years prior had led the firm to shift its entire corporate direction. Precision, seeing a market need for eco-friendly
straws, launched a brand-new subsidiary, Aardvark, to bring their paper straws back to the market.
The story goes, we recreated a whole industry, something that was old became new again, something that was better for the environment by at
least 50 percent, McKerrow added. They arent cheap at 1.5 cents each, the cost is far above the commodity price of standard plastic straws.
But in some ways, the extra cost on the front end means its a whole lot cheaper for the environment.
The problem with straws are that theyre so insignificant that we take them for granted. Perhaps we shouldnt.
http://tedium.co/2017/06/06/plastic-straw-sustainability-problems/