Starbucks' Formidable Attack on Pollution

How do you eat an elephant?  The best response is: "One bite at a time." Another might be "Get started now."  When it comes to the dinosaur-sized problem of global pollution, Starbucks Coffee Company just took a giant step forward, weaponized with a goal.  On July 9, the company announced, that, by 2020, it would no longer serve plastic straws with its drinks.  What's wrong with plastic straws?  They pollute the oceans with debris that survives for hundreds of years, injuring and sometimes killing sea creatures that live there.  The recent Starbucks' decision may save the world from being contaminated by one billion straws per year. 

Here's the company's promise to the world, stated on its website: Starbucks will phase out plastic straws from it's more than 28,000 stores worldwide by 2020.  Of course, plastic straws are not the main cause of plastic pollution.  According to the Chicago Tribune, "Plastic drinking straws makeup only about 4 percent of the plastic trash by a number of pieces, and far less by weight. Straws contribute about 2,000 tons of plastic  waste of almost 9 million tons that ends up in  waters all around the Earth." The Starbucks initiative is just one example of big companies that are moving in the eco-friendly direction.  Others include Hyatt Hotels, Dunkin' Donuts, and McDonalds.

The Starbucks campaign came about almost by accident. The company was looking for a better way for consumers to enjoy the frothy layer on top of a particular drink.  An engineer named Emily Alexander and her team set to work.  It took them 10 weeks to figure out the answer.  What's going to replace the ubiquitous straw?   Pull-tab and twist-top designs were rejected. Instead, the designers created a lid with a triangular-shaped hole and ridges that slanted upward near the rim.   The  Starbucks website describes the invention as "a teardrop-shaped opening about the size of a thumbprint, a cleaner, less rigid version of a hot cup lid."

 My guess is that this design was selected to make it easy (or at least possible) to enjoy the drink without spilling it on one's clothes or creating a foam mustache.  It may not sound like much of a replacement for our life-long friend the straw, but what's important is that it's not a straw.

Since the announcement, media puns about "the last straw" have been cropping up everywhere, even in Time magazine's July 23 issue. Time gave us this statistic:"... some say the U.S. alone uses 500 million disposable straws daily." 

Turning our attention from the last straw to the first one, we must give Sumerians (long-ago residents of Sumer) credit for inventing the first straw, at least the first one we know about. The Sumerian civilization began thousands of years ago in what is now southern Iraq.  Wikipedia relates that the straw found created in Sumer was made of gold and precious stones.

 Time went on (as it has a habit of doing), and the development of straws evolved from straw to paper to plastic.  In the 18th century, straws made from straw became popular  (hence the name).  Straw is the by-product of dry stalks of cereal plants such as barley, oats, rice, rye, and wheat.   Straws made from rye were far from ideal.  They lent a grassy taste to drinks and sometimes also turned to mush within the drink. Then, in 1888, a paper straw was patented.  Held together with glue, it wasn't too sturdy either until it was improved with a wax coating. Finally, in the 20th century, along came plastic straws. These didn't disintegrate in drinks and were cheap to produce. Perfect, right?  That is, until folks realized that plastic straws were polluting the environment. Ironically, their durability was actually disastrous for planet Earth.

The president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, Kevin Johnson, describes the company's global aspiration to achieve "sustainable coffee, served to our customers in more sustainable ways." In addition to banning plastic straws, Starbucks is thinking of other ways to cut down on environmental clutter, for example, with their BYOT (bring your own tumbler) campaign. In England, Starbucks has sold more than 18 million reusable glasses for $1each.  Good ideas sometimes travel far. A theatre I patronize in Glencoe, Illinois has a similar procedure.

Emily Alexander,  the lead developer of Starbucks' new lid, is optimistic about the potential for improving her design even further, "capitalizing on the increasing array of compostable plastic and other sustainable materials." Alexander's lid will become the standard for most of Starbucks'  iced drinks.  Frappuccino will be served with a paper compostable plastic straw made from plant starch.

The new lids are already widely available in the Chicago area, where I live.  I recently consumed a foamy Starbucks drink with the newly designed top.  It worked just fine, enabling me to get a full mouthful of delicious foam instantly. If you prefer spreading your foam throughout your drink, I recommend stirring and drinking with a straw--or even 2 or 3 if you're very thirsty.  (They'll fit in the triangular lid opening.) You'll find some paper straws still available at  Starbucks for drinks not topped with foam.

In the future, "the last straw" may be not only a figure of speech but a literal historical happening. Perhaps that final skinny plastic utensil will wind up in someone's safe deposit box, alongside a will in which the item is bequeathed to a favorite child or grandchild, who will eye it with confusion and wonder what in the world it was once used for.

  For a definition of the saying "the last  straw," go to this link:

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-last-straw.html

Source(s):

Starbucks.com  "Straws are out, lids are in: Starbucks announces environmental milestone"

https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-announces-environmental-milestone

Wikipedia.org "Drinking Straw"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_straw

Chicago Tribune "Starbucks is ditching plastic straws by 2020,"  July 10, 2018.

Time  "How plastic straws became so popular," July 23, 2018.