No more plastic straws

During the summer school holidays we have been eating out more often than we usually do; nothing extravagant, but a few visits to the kid-friendly bistro at our local pub and a few milkshakes at the beach or by the lake have been really enjoyable.  We've also been drinking a lot of smoothies at home and one of our non-handmade Christmas presents was a set of old-fashioned milkshake/ sundae glasses.

{Banana split anyone? Yum, especially when the bananas are home grown and the chocolate sauce & ice cream is homemade!}.

So, I've noticed that we've been going through a lot of disposable plastic straws while we are out - I once asked for no straw in my takeaway smoothie but the server put one in anyway out of habit, then promptly pulled it out and threw it in the bin before handing it to me. Sigh.

I know the paperboard cup ends up in the bin too, but plastic straws, being so light, are number nine in the Center for Marine Conservation's "dirty dozen" - the list of 12 most commonly found plastic items in our oceans - and given that sometimes our rubbish is going into bins right next to the ocean or lake, it is something I am sensitive to.

I knew that glass straws existed as an alternative to the plastic straws you might use at home, but they are very expensive, $14 - $15AUD each, and with three small kids (who regularly manage to smash melamine and Corelle® dinnerware) I can't justify the cost versus their lack of durability.

Enter the discovery of stainless steel straws.  They have been around for some time, but I don't regularly read 'green consumer' websites or magazines any more, so I hadn't heard of them until recently. Again, they aren't cheap, mine were about $14 for a set of four from a kitchen catering equipment supplier (I bought two sets), but being stainless steel I can throw them in my handbag or picnic set for using when we are out and about.

I still feel a bit ambivalent about them, as they are not something I would ever buy for my own use and they would not have a small ecological footprint, being both manufactured in China & made from a high energy-consumption product, but I have to say that the kids are very much enjoying them.  Like the girls' stainless steel water bottles (also all manufactured in China), I hope that they end up being a long-term investment of materials.

Further to the disposable cup issue, one of our other non-handmade presents was a porcelain Eco Cup takeaway coffee cup for hubby {He is starting a new job next month and his new office is opposite our favourite cafe & our Fairtrade, organic coffee bean supplier. Lucky him!}.

As so many cafes are now happily accepting 'bring your own' coffee cups, I am wondering if bringing our own smoothie cups might be the next move?  I'm not going to cart around our glass ones, but I'm sure I have some vintage 80's plastic ones from an old Sunbeam milkshake maker kicking around in the back of the cupboard. I know I've seen some pop up at op-shops from time to time too.  It's a worth a try if I can find them I reckon, although remembering to bring something to put the wet, sticky cups into afterwards could be an issue, not to mention remembering to put them back in the car after I've washed them {mmm, dried-on bits of banana smoothie might pose a problem too}.  I suppose it's like remembering your green bags though, it just becomes habit.

Have any of you guys done something similar before?

Cheers,