Popular Science Topic | The Past and Present of a Straw (Part 1)
Do you remember how heroes in wuxia dramas drank alcohol? Some would drink directly from the wine jar, others would use large bowls, and more refined individuals would sip from luminous cups, much like the ancient poem describes: “Grape wine in luminous cups.” However, modern people’s drinking habits are not so “unrestrained,” using something called a straw. Do you know when straws first appeared?
Modern young people often use straws when drinking beverages like milk tea and coffee. The history of straws and beverages as a pair can be traced back 7,000 years. Murals in ancient Sumerian tombs depict nobles using hollow plant stems to drink beer. In China during the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were also records of ancient people using plant stems as straws to drink “furnace wine.” However, the modern concept of a straw was only invented by an American in the 19th century.
One summer day in 1888, an American cigarette manufacturer named Marvin Stone was enjoying a mint julep with a rye straw when the straw, used as a drinking tube, suddenly split. It’s like when we, who love milk tea, have our straw split and can’t slurp up the pearls – incredibly frustrating.
So, as a cigarette manufacturer, he decided to create a product to replace the rye straw. Just like making cigarettes, he created a paper straw. He tried it out, and it was pretty good; it didn’t break, and it didn’t have any strange taste. From then on, people began to widely use paper straws.
Later, in the 1930s, American inventor Joseph Friedman noticed his young daughter struggling to drink water with a straight straw at a counter. So, he improved the paper straw with a screw, giving it a corrugated section that could be easily bent without affecting the internal passage. This improved paper straw became even more popular.
However, the advent of plastic directly changed the fate of paper straws, ushering in a brand new era for the straw industry. Plastic straws were superior to paper straws in both flexibility and aesthetics, and they were also cheaper, more durable, and could be easily inserted into the cross-shaped slot of a beverage lid without tearing or squeezing (this is a major reason why paper straws were criticized recently, as plastic straws were just too “strong”!).
Thus, paper straws were replaced by colorful plastic straws, temporarily exiting the historical stage. While plastic straws seemed perfect, perfect things always bring a downside, like opening Pandora’s box. The widespread use of plastic straws led to very serious consequences. What will the future of straws hold? We’ll discuss it next time.
The Past and Present of a Drinking Straw (Part 2)
A few days ago, we discussed the past and present of straws, touching on plastic straws. Today, we’ll continue our conversation. Due to their aesthetic appeal and various other advantages, plastic straws became widely used, and their predecessor, paper straws, were forgotten. However, the widespread use of plastic straws brought about an even more severe problem – environmental protection.
According to relevant media reports, in the United States alone, between 170 million and 390 million plastic straws are used daily. A 2018 study showed that globally, approximately 8.3 billion straws pollute beaches around the world. Because plastic straws are so incredibly small, their recycling value is almost negligible, making them one of the top ten ocean pollutants in the world today.
“Before, we all thought the ocean was so vast that whatever humans did wouldn’t affect marine life, but we were wrong!” In August 2015, a video of humans pulling a plastic straw from a sea turtle’s nose quickly went viral. In the video, it took staff a full 8 minutes to remove the 10-centimeter-long straw, and throughout the process, the sea turtle was in extreme pain and bleeding profusely.
This video was heartbreaking. Plastic straws have severely impacted marine life. The current ratio of plastic to plankton in the ocean has reached 1:2. If left unchecked, the total weight of plastic will exceed that of fish by 2050! Horrifying humans, wake up!
Since then, people began to realize the importance of environmental protection. If plastic waste is not controlled, it will severely affect the ecological balance. Consequently, in 2017, Queen Elizabeth II issued a plastic ban, and subsequently, countries and regions such as Europe, New Zealand, Chile, and France also successively enacted plastic bans. China also clearly proposed a complete ban on single-use plastic straws by the end of 2020.
The mission of plastic straws has come to an end, and people have begun to search for new environmentally friendly straws. At this point, the historical mission of paper straws was reaffirmed, along with the emergence of PLA biodegradable straws. Let’s talk about PLA straws first. After realizing the environmental impact, people defined environmentally friendly straws as those that could be degraded by the environment. PLA is a biodegradable material whose main raw materials come from plant starch and sugarcane. Although biodegradable, PLA has too many limiting conditions unsuitable for large-scale use.
Now let’s talk about paper straws, yes, the same paper straws that were once heavily criticized online. Most paper straws on the market today are made by winding 3-5 layers of paper and bonding them with glue. While they may seem “stronger” than plastic straws in terms of hardness, they still have numerous drawbacks that consumers complain about: “Paper straws aren’t durable in liquids,” “Paper straws have a strong taste!”, “Paper straws are so environmentally friendly they decompose right in your mouth,” and so on. Furthermore, in terms of environmental protection, while paper straws appear to cause less environmental harm than plastic straws, current paper straws are still not recyclable!
However, on the other other hand, the two types of straws currently on the market seem imperfect. So, what if the two solutions were effectively combined? It is reported that a domestic straw machinery manufacturer is researching a more durable paper straw that uses less material. By focusing on the raw paper through coating or other methods and forming a single layer of paper, the coating allows the paper straw to solidify with higher hardness. This method is energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, achieves a low-carbon effect, and offers a better user experience