The Unremarkable Drinking Straw

While plastic straws are a recent invention, humans have been using hollow, cylindrical tubes to bring liquid to their lips for centuries. Ancient Sumerians, one of the first societies known to brew beer—5,000 years ago—submerged long, thin tubes made from precious metals into large jars to reach the liquid sitting below fermentation byproducts. A man named Marvin Stone was the first to file a patent for a drinking straw. in 1888 . The Smithsonian Institute cites a widely touted legend saying Stone was drinking a mint julep on a hot summer day in 1880 when his piece of rye grass, then used as a straw, began to disintegrate. Stone, a paper cigarette holder manufacturer, decided he could make something better. He wrapped strips of paper around a pencil, glued them together, and soon had an early prototype of paper drinking straws. He patented his design in 1888, and by 1890, his factory Stone Industrial was mass producing them. It wasn't until the 1930s that straws gained the ability to bend. Watching his daughter struggle to easily reach her milkshake through a straight paper straw, inventor Joseph Friedman inserted a screw into the straw, wrapped floss around the screw's grooves, and took out the screw. With indentations, the straw could easily bend without breaking. Friedman patented his invention and created the Flex-Straw Company to churn out his design. Five hundred million straws are used each day by people in the United States alone. Plastic straws are one of the most widely used, and therefore disposed of, plastic products. By refusing a straw, you can help prevent plastic pollution. You can also ask your local restaurants to provide straws only upon request, or to change to paper or other non-plastic options. Imagine the impact if we all gave up the habit of this single-use plastic item. So say no to the straw, and help change the future.