As states are passing new bans on single-use plastic and environmental sustainability is gaining in popularity, more and more restaurants are looking for environmentally-friendly straw alternatives. There are straws out there that have the same look and feel as plastic straws, but are actually made with a biodegradable material.  

Materials like PHA mimic the look and feel of plastic straws, but unlike their predecessors they take less than a year to degrade. So, why are these biodegradable straws such a good thing? 

The Negative Impact of Plastic Straws

Plastic straws can take nearly 200 years to degrade (WWF Australia). This is a mind-blowing statistic considering most plastic straws are likely used for less than one hour. Learn more about how long straws take to fully decompose here.  

Unfortunately, many straws don’t make it to landfills and a majority of straws actually line the coastlines across our planet. From here, many straws make their way into our waterways and then into the digestive system of marine life. Straws have a huge negative impact on our environment. 

What Can Be Done 

Many states and cities have put ordinances in place banning the use of single-use plastic straws. The goal is to help eliminate the continued littering of plastics into our waterways. These bans are helping to replace single-use plastics with biodegradable, compostable, and reusable products instead. 

Consumers have the option to support environmentally-friendly businesses, purchase their own sustainable alternatives to use instead, and limit their use of single-use plastic straws altogether. 

Business owners can offer biodegradable alternatives like PHA straws instead of plastic straws or adjust their services to limit plastic straw usage. Some state bans require restaurants to only offer straws upon request. Whether your state falls under these requirements or not, it can help to proactively look into sustainable options for your business now. 

The Benefit of Biodegradable Plastics 

PHA straws take far less time to break down compared to traditional plastic straws.  

If you take into account that 500 million straws are used daily in the USA alone (AZA) and that there are over 1 million restaurants in the United States, it’s easy to see what a large impact restaurants can make.