The Last Straw

There’s nothing special about ordinary drinking straws. They are useful, simple, and have been around for decades. But today they are considered Public Enemy No. 1 because they also contribute to major environmental and health problems, and therein lies the rub. Fortunately, business has come up with a better idea. Those ordinary straws are being phased out and are being replaced by newer, environmentally friendly ones.

The problem with ordinary straws is that they are made of plastic. That’s bad because many are discarded carelessly and end up in the ocean, where they not only taint one of nature’s most expansive phenomenon but are also eaten by fish. This creates health problems for those fish, and even worse for the people who eat these fish. It takes up to 500 years for plastic straws to decompose.

So why not just replace them? Because that’s easier said than done. Americans use some 500 million straws every day, enough to fill 125 school buses, and at this time there still is no acceptable alternatives that can be made in these quantities. However, there is good news on the way.

The Paper Chase

The idea of replacing plastic straws with a biodegradable one is not new; in fact, it has been simmering for years. Bloomberg reports that last fall, Porchlight, a Southern-themed cocktail lounge in New York, decided to get rid of plastic straws. Mark Maynard, the bar’s manager, tested alternatives; he placed 20 different paper straws in glasses of water. “The one made by Aardvark was the standout,” he says. Their paper was not only compostable, but also held together for well over an hour, which was much better than the others.

Despite these advantages, Porchlight could not switch its plastic straws to Aardvark’s new paper straws because the waiting time to fill an order was up to three months. For Aardvark, what goes around comes around: The company that invented the paper straw in 1888 is now making them again because of the growing anti-plastic and eco-friendly climate.

After Aardvark got back into this business in 2007, orders started doubling every year. The company was making millions of its straws annually and introducing innovations along the way, this time making straws in different sizes and designs, with upgraded paper and glues and with safe colors.

Growing Pains

While Aardvark was dealing with increasing demand, one thing it didn’t foresee was just how dramatic the demand for its products would be. “In 2017 to 2018, demand went from double what it was the year before to 50 times the demand,” said David Rhodes, the company’s global business director. “Most businesses would have a hard time reacting to that.”

So did Aardvark. “We didn’t have the resources to grow to the level that we needed to be,” Rhodes says.

Last August, the company was purchased by Hoffmaster Group in a deal that would help it keep pace with the skyrocketing demand. By early 2019, Aardvark hopes to boost its production capacity to seven times the level it was last August, when it was acquired by Hoffmaster. This means it will be producing many millions of its new paper straws every day.

The company’s increased production will certainly come in handy because demand will likely continue to soar. For one, a growing number of cities are requiring people to use these straws. Within the last year, places such as San Francisco, Seattle, Fort Myers, Malibu, and Vancouver have banned the use of plastic straws, while others, such as New York, DC, and cities in Hawaii and New Jersey, have pending legislation to do so. Some institutions such as museums and art galleries, sports stadiums and college campuses have announced they also want to become “plastic-straw-free” by Sept. 2019.

“As each new municipality puts laws in place, we shift to help folks in need,” says Andy Romjue, president of Hoffmaster’s food service division. “If you can’t have plastic straws in Seattle, we’ll prioritize that over Nebraska.”

A growing number of major companies are instituting very similar policies. Among those are: American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott UK, McDonald’s, SeaWorld, Royal Caribbean, and Disney. Starbucks is also part of this crowd; it will eliminate plastic straws and use recyclable plastic lids for all cold drinks. Aardvark said it’s talking to additional major brands that are looking for alternatives to plastic straws. And even the EU proposed a ban on plastic straws and cutlery.

Making White Straws Green

Aardvark is using the investment from Hoffmaster to boost its output, expand facilities, and hire more employees. However, it is thinking green every step of the way. Even the paper it uses is sourced from trees the company grows to avoid deforestation and to provide the greenest possible substitute for plastic.

Making plastic straws is very inexpensive. The cost is just a half cent. Paper straws are more expensive but not prohibitively so; the cost of making one has been estimated at between a penny and a half and two and a half cents.

Manufacturing paper straws is relatively simple and so are the options for specialty straws, such as those that are custom designed or extra-wide ones for shakes. However, creating one from scratch is not as simple, nor is setting up a manufacturing plant. Most of Aardvark’s manufacturing process is secret.

“Building facilities that could rival Aardvark’s can’t happen overnight. It takes a while to develop a sustainable and green business like this,” he says. “You have to get compostability and biodegradability testing and then certification” from the Food and Drug Administration.

All the clamor from so many sources for an eco-friendly straw will be met; it just won’t be met overnight. In the 1960s, when the plastics industry entered the business, that also didn’t happen overnight. “It took them almost a decade to build out the structure to move Americans away from paper straws,” notes Rhodes.

It’s very possible that the huge demand for environmentally friendly straws will spill over to related products such as cold cups, disposable utensils, and even some plates. Given the enthusiasm for eco-friendly straws, it’s virtually a given that people would choose them even if they would have to pay slightly more.

Meanwhile, a number of environmentalists have successfully focused a lot of media attention on the tons of plastic debris in the ocean and, using innovative techniques and backing from wealthy individuals, they hope to rid the ocean of its plastic litter by 2050. The plan is to recycle some of that and use the rest for fuel.

Isn’t it a nice feeling to help make the world a cleaner place, even if it’s only one straw at a time?

 Sources: bloomberg.com; fastcompany.com; fortune.com; independent.co.uk; nps.gov.
USA Today

By Gerald Harris