It takes 200 years for a plastic straw to decompose. They usually can’t be recycled. Like all plastics, they are a danger to marine life. Scientists have even found plastic pollution in the bodies of sea creatures living in the Mariana Trench, the farthest depths of the ocean. Surely it would be easy to just get rid of the darn things? For most of us, straws are a luxury. Venues from the Sydney Opera House to Grill’d burger chain and numerous other pubs and restaurants around the country have started going proudly straw-free or providing alternatives. One of the organisations leading this work is called The Last Straw, and at last count, it had signed up 474 businesses across Australia as “Straw-Conscious Venues”. Some cafes have banned plastic straws and are using steel ones instead. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos But for some people, straws are essential aids that let them participate in the life of the community. Not everyone has the strength and co-ordination to lift a cup and hold it to their mouth.

Alternatives are not always suitable. Some people have biting issues that can make alternatives such as metal and bamboo dangerous. And while wax paper straws have retro charm, they don’t cope well with hot liquids. The issues are summarised on the People with Disabilities Australia website, while a woman called Sarah Packford has created a table comparing the alternatives. We could argue the toss but I reckon we need to listen to people about the way their own bodies work and interact with the world. To insist that something is viable when the person with direct lived experience says it’s not is pretty gross. You might ask what people with disabilities did before plastic straws were invented and became so ubiquitous. The truth is they often died, or lived in institutions with 24-hour care. We can’t go backwards.

Recycler Marina DeBris collects plastic straws that have been littered and creates art. Credit:Mimi Haddon Forcing people who need a straw to bring their own - whether it’s reusable or single-use - is unequal, since the rest of us can simply drink from a glass. What’s the answer? The world needs to move away from plastics if we want a habitable planet, but it’s not fair if people with disabilities pay a greater price. Even requiring people with disabilities to ask for a straw and potentially justify their need if they have a hidden disability creates a barrier. But the old way of simply putting a straw in everyone’s glass unless they remember to ask to not have it is untenable. The straws should be on the counter or offered when staff take the order. Alice Wong, a woman with disabilities, suggests venues provide a choice of plastic straw and a biodegradable alternative, clearly labelled. It might seem like a burden until you remember most cafes provide at least four types of milk.

Loading I also agree with Wong that venues need to reduce waste across the board. All of us do – there’s a disposable coffee cup sitting on my desk as I write this, because I can’t find the lid to my KeepCup. But long-term there’s an economic question to answer. Just say we shift the culture and we all stop using straws unless we truly need them. What then? The problem is manufacturing relies on economics of scale. If most of the end users disappear, it won’t be economic to produce plastic straws at a cheap enough price that venues can simply give them away. This might seem a long way off, but if dramatic reduction in straw usage is our goal – and it should be – we need to think it through.

We urgently need to develop materials that are as flexible, strong, temperature-resistant and as cheap as plastic, but are non-toxic and break down quickly in the environment. This would solve more than just the problem with straws. Loading There’s a role for government because markets are efficient at solving purely economic problems, but intervention is needed when there’s market failure or to solve social and environmental problems. In economics, it’s a form of market failure where something is cheap because the external cost is borne by a third party. Plastic straws are cheap because the external costs are borne by the environment. One type of intervention could be a government ban on straws but then there would be a social cost.