Strawless lunch

[underpants]

My daughter and I went to lunch today at a local place. Last week before school for her, I got laid off on Friday. Nice place. "Foodie" before that was a thing. Lots of business lunches going on.

Burger and tuna melt.

The waitron brought us of sweet tea and there were no straws. Before I asked I look around and no one had straws.

[tosh]

1. It's catching on!

[hlthe2b]

2. I'm going to have to order a few reusable straws to carry with me...

For years if there was one person to be served a dirty glass,, it was inevitably me.

[StarryNite]

32. Dirty glasses and silverware...

gross me out! Love your idea of taking reusable straws!

[Hortensis]

34. I envy you your choice of hangups.

Mine is the table surface. Generally speaking, I don't let the silverware touch it or eat food that has. Ordering your own resusable straws is very doable, supplying my own resuable tablecloths not so much.

Interestingly, although avoiding touching doorknobs is really big also, I have no real problem with menus and typically grab them happily. Guessing my unconscious made a sensible accommodation with hard reality.

[GulfCoast66]

3. I like straws. But understand plastic strews, while a minimal contributor

Do cause environmental damage.

Maybe restaurants will get smart and realize there is a very old solution. Paper strays.

[Jersey Devil]

4. Haven't used a straw in years

It could be my imagination, but drinks through a straw just don't taste as good as those passing over my lips first. I am an iced tea junkie and find that especially true with tea.

[cjjason]

5. I just ate breakfast at Spangles the other day.

They had paper straws, and they were very firm. Almost couldn't tell it was paper. But it was paper. They should just stop using plastic straws altogether now. Find another use for them until they are all gone, but don't hand them out for drinks in restaurants. With these new paper straws, we will not miss the plastic ones.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. Currently in Costa Rica and so far we've only seen paper straws. nt

[Blue_true]

7. What type of job were you laid off from?

According to Trump, the economy has never been stronger (bullshit of course).

[ProudLib72]

8. Did you tell the waitron, "Hey!"?

[Garrett78]

9. To Republicans, this is a form of oppression. But systemic racism is great.

[Retrograde]

10. I am capable of drinking from a glass

a skill I learned at a very early age. I'm usually irked by waiters who deliver a glass of water with a straw in it, more so when said straw has a little paper cap still on it.

[Staph]

11. A friend of mine says, when a straw with the little bit of paper is served,

"Ah! Sanitized for your protection!"

[Ms. Toad]

12. When celebrating the absence of straws, remember the people who need them -

and encourage accommodation without shaming.

At one of my favorite neighborhood places, when I make my order, I feel comfortable asking for and receiving assistance. I’ll ask the barista to bring my drink to my table since I cannot reach the high counters or carry a full cup. I’ll even ask for help adding sugar when I’m feeling indulgent, because a glass dispenser is too heavy for me to lift. Two items I always ask with my drinks are a lid and a plastic straw, emphasis on plastic. Lids prevent spillage when I’m navigating bumpy sidewalks and curb cuts; straws are necessary because I do not have the hand and arm strength to lift a drink and tip it into my mouth. Plastic straws are the best when I drink hot liquids; compostable ones tend to melt or break apart.

It’s not easy or pleasant asking for help in public spaces like restaurants, because you never know what attitudes you’ll encounter: indifference, pity, or outright rejection. I don’t see these types of help as special treatment or inspirational for someone to surreptitiously post on social media as feel-good clickbait; they’re simply examples of excellent hospitality.

Plastic is seen as cheap, “anti-luxury,” wasteful, and harmful to the environment. All true. Plastic is also an essential part of my health and wellness. With my neuromuscular disability, plastic straws are necessary tools for my hydration and nutrition. Currently, plastic single-use straws are the latest target by environmentalists in the move toward zero waste. Major restaurant groups such as Union Square Hospitality Group and companies such as Starbucks and others in the travel industry announced plans to phase out single-use plastics.

. . .

1. Plastic straws are considered unnecessary items used by environmentalists as a “gateway plastic” to engage the public on a larger conversation about waste. According to Dune Ives, executive director of the Lonely Whale Foundation, “Plastic straws are social tools and props, the perfect conversation starter.” But one person’s social prop is another person’s conduit for nutrition. It’s as if people who rely on straws — older adults, children, and disabled people — don’t matter and that our needs are less important than the environment. I feel erased by these attitudes.

https://www.eater.com/2018/7/19/17586742/plastic-straw-ban-disabilities

[OhioBlue]

13. I was in a training session a few months ago with a speech therapist

which focused on choking hazards and meal plans especially related to persons with developmental disabilities. Anyway, one thing that was taught in that session, relates to the issue of straws.

The speech therapist/pathologist/specialist... not exactly sure of the correct title or credential.. told us that our body is not engineered to swallow when our heads are tilted back which can lead to drink or food "going down the wrong pipe".

I have been a person who regularly has a drink "go down the wrong pipe". I can remember as a child, sitting at the dinner table, drinking milk and bursting into fits of coughing. I remember my dad being incredulous at the fact that one of his three children is always the same one that has a problem drinking milk. It has never been a "problem" but just something I shrugged away as "this always happens to me" as I continued into adulthood and was embarrassed at myself in various situations when I would take a drink and burst into a coughing fit and offer an "I'm okay, just went down the wrong pipe".

After that session, when I take a drink from a glass, I will tilt my head back to take the drink but then tilt it down before I swallow.... problem solved. How did I never know this before? lol.

Too much information, I know... my point is that yes, straws can be very beneficial to people, especially for those with weakened muscular systems, dementia or regulated to a bed. They may not be able to lift their head to drink and then lower it before swallowing which could lead to aspiration. So in that aspect, I completely agree with you that we should remember people that need straws and not shame them.

With that said, I do also think that there are ways to work with the reduction of single use plastic straws in our common use and still accommodate those that need them. Obviously hospitals or any care facilities should be exempt from any ban. Paper or reusable straws can also take the place of single use plastic straws in restaurants and self-serve dispensaries.

[Ms. Toad]

14. The problem is that right now, sigle-use plastic straws are being demonized -

and places like Starbucks are removing them altogether, without regard to people who realy need them.

That means that anyone who needs them in order to be able to drink anything - for example my friends wtih CP - has to bring their own. That's a restaurant deciding silverware is an issue, and expecting every person to bring their own to the restaurant to be able to eat.

As to moving away from single use plastic straws - for many people none of the options you suggested are sufficient. Paper is insufficient, beacause it would not last past the first spastic bite - most durable reusuables have the opposite problem in that with one good bite my friends might well chip a tooth - or jam the straws through the roof of their mouth. Single use straws provide the perfect blend between durability and lack of rigidity.

Single use plastic straws really do need to be made available for those who need them (without being required to prove need, or pay an additional cost). The current wave is threatening to take them completely out of use, adding to the challenges people who need them already face.

[californiabear]

15. I have some reservations...

We need to come back down to earth on the plastic straw thing. This whole craze was started based on a science project conducted by a 9 year old by the name Milo Cress. Milo simply called various straw manufacturers and estimated that we in the US use 500 million plastic straws each day. The true estimate is lower, between 390 and 170 million. On top of the obvious fact that a ban doesn't take into consideration people with disabilities, there simply isn't enough science to back up the notion that banning straws across the US will make any difference on humans polluting the oceans. The US contributes less than 1% of the plastic waste that ends up in the ocean, and plastic straws are a tiny percentage of that 1%. Additionally, is everyone forgetting that straws made of paper are not ecologically friendly? A complete switch from plastic to paper would result in a huge increase in the number of trees being cut down annually, not to mention the other energy costs that go into the entire production cycle. I think it's rather elitist to think that we are doing such a great job by simply banning something so silly as the plastic straw. Heart's in the right place, but this won't work. I'm in agreement with Ms. Toad

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-ban-fact-check-nyt.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/plastic-straw-ban-won-environment-article-1.4004430
https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-01-13/5-countries-dump-more-plastic-oceans-rest-world-combined

[marble falls]

18. The differnce being trees are plantation grown for paper. No one is clear cutting ...

old forests for paper. A straw is a very good place to start, they are a huge ecological problem that uses non renewable highly polluting resources.

Hundreds of tons of waste removed from the environment AND something that everyone can relate to and be part of the solution is a very good thing.

[californiabear]

33. but they're not...

They're not an ecological problem though. American plastic straws make up an insignificant portion of plastic waste, and switching to paper is going to create a greater problem both economically and ecologically. This is nothing more than a way to pat ourselves on the back

[OnDoutside]

16. I wonder if by not providing a paper alternative and making people drink from glasses, will there be

a rise in mouth sores/oral herpes simplex, due to ineffectively washed glasses ?

[marble falls]

19. How about the server handling your straw and giving it to you from a bundle in his ...

apron? The solution? MORE paper for wrapping.

[OnDoutside]

20. There's no easy answer, but at least paper is renewable.

[marble falls]

22. Which is why the straws should be rarer and made of paper.

[LanternWaste]

26. Have there been measurable incidences resulting from poorly washed drinking glasses in the past?

[marble falls]

27. I'd trust the dishwasher in any restaurant. If it works, it cleans. If I couldn't trust ...

a visibly clean and dry glass, the dirty table and floors and silver-ware, unkempt bathroom had already gotten my attention.

Most dishwashers are leased and maintained by the lessor. Its one of the first things along with a real danger to your health, the ice-maker, the health department really looks at first in any commercial kitchen.

The real danger to your glass? The lemons.

What You Should Know About Dirty Lemon Wedges at Restaurants
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-you-should-know-about-dirty-lemon-wedges-at-restaurants/

These little suckers have been through two or three hands at least before you get them.

[Iggo]

21. "Waitron."

I like it.

[marble falls]

23. I was a waiter, not a "waitron".

[Iggo]

24. That, too.

Like "actor."

[marble falls]

25. I have no problem removing gender from the word. Waitperson sounds a little awkward ...

but it has a human and skill level implied in it. Waiter taken in a vacuum is also genderless.

[Iggo]

28. Yep, "waiter" already is what it is.

[crazycatlady]

31. 'server' isn't as gendered

[Turbineguy]

29. When I was a small boy

straws were special. A straw just made everything more wonderful. Straws were of waxed paper then. unless you were in the hospital. There straws were made of glass and very scary!

[onethatcares]

30. meanwhile, back in the U.S. of A.

we get to eat asbestos fibers again.........Mmmmmmmmmmm, tastes great, less something. ( )