Plastic Free Glass Drinking Straws

My choice of plastic-free drinking straw is the Decorative Dots set, by Glass Dharma, Purchased on Amazon. I selected this set for its beauty and functionality, as well as the fact that it would be handy to have an extra on hand for a friend.

I like that the set has multi-colored offerings, making it easy to know which glass I'm sipping from in a crowd. And, it comes with a handy little cleaning brush too, although I rarely use it as I run my straws through the dishwasher.

These delightfully decorative glass straws have graced my drinking glass for well over a year now and I also travel with one in my purse so that I have it when dining out in restaurants.

Here I shall address some of the concerns I had when I first heard of glass drinking straws, concerns you may have as well. Additionally, I will highlight a few features I discovered in my research that led me to choose glass as my alternative to plastic straws.

• DURABILITY: Most glass drinking straws are made from borosilicate glass tubing; glass which is superior in durability and heat resistance. Glass straws are not invincible! Breakage may occur when abruptly dropped onto a hard surface or sharply banged against a solid object.

Purpose-driven, I have dropped my new glass straws from a standing position onto carpeted flooring, dropped them fairly sharply upon my kitchen countertop, and again dropped them on my glass top table - no broken straws! I must admit I feared a purposeful drop onto my ceramic tile kitchen floor and this durability test I have not yet performed.

• CLEANABILITY: I have found my glass straw quite easy to clean. I rinse it clean with hot soapy water after each use. After a thick vegetable or fruit smoothie drink, I have used the glass straw cleaning brush to make sure the straw is free of any food remains.

Because my Glass Dharma straws are dishwasher safe, this is my preferred method for sanitary cleaning to ensure they are bacteria-free. I tested my set of four decorative glass straws in my dishwasher and they all came out squeaky clean, unscathed, and with no spots. (Unlike some of my glassware!)

• CHILD-FRIENDLY: While I do not have children in my home, I would not have had any hesitation whatsoever in introducing my son to a glass drinking straw when he was a toddler. Of course, I would have done so with supervision, as I recommend all parents do with their small children. Naturally, accidents do happen, but I am confident that most well-behaved kids will do just fine with these straws with proper guidance.

I do feel that children would find the bent glass straw easier to use and more fun to drink with, too.

• ECO-FRIENDLY: We are talking trash and toxins here (think BPA) leaching into our environment as millions of straws end up in our landfills, our waterways, and are added to the litter in our streets.

Sure, I could have chosen to use paper straws as my alternative to plastic, but then again, these would be disposable, again creating waste. Biodegradable or not, the impact on our environment would be detrimental. Just because it can be broken down in a shorter amount of time does not necessarily mean it is good for the environment - or for you and me!

No doubt Mother Earth is pleased to see me sipping my beverages, hot and cold, with my eco-friendly straw!

1. Glass Dharma products are Made in the USA! That means they travel less distance to get to me and my purchase aids business and its workers in my country.
2. The company stands by their products with a lifetime guarantee! If I break my straw, they will repair or replace it for free.

Perhaps you do not care for the author's choice of the decorative dots on her straws. (Shown above.) No problem! Whether it be that you just want one straw, straws with a bend, or straight straws, your choices are many.

I have worked in the restaurant and bar industry on and off for decades. I have seen a lot of straws used for drinking!

While working at Hog Wild Bar-B-Q in Carrabelle, Florida as a server, I asked my boss (owner of the restaurant) Ken how many plastic straws the restaurant goes through in a month. He responded with, “I order about 3,000 straws per month.”

That equals 36,000 straws per year! And that is just one family-style restaurant in a small-town tourist community.

Thankfully, Ken was a good sport about my article, even though he doubts many can make the switch from straws being provided by the food industry to restaurant goers bringing their own reusable glass straws.

It is my hope that more people will take the pledge and begin carrying their own glass drinking straws with them. It would be a win-win situation for the environment as well as for restaurant owners.

Hog Wild Bar-B-Q logo is © Hog Wild Bar-B-Q. Used with permission.

According to their own figures...

McDonald's serves close to  68 million people per day worldwide.

One wonders ... How many straws would that be per day? And where might most of those straws end up?

According to the Earth Society Foundation, Earth Day is observed internationally on April 22nd. While this would be the perfect day to pledge to switch from plastic to glass drinking straws, I urge you not to wait - get your glass straw today!