From January 1 this year, Beijing's "Ten plastic restrictions" require the catering industry to no longer use disposable plastic straws . Many drink shops have replaced straws in time, among which paper straws and polylactic acid (PLA) degradable straws are the most used. However, after a few days of use, the paper straw was frequently ridiculed by everyone because of the reasons of "not good to use" and "taste".

Xiao Zhao is a heavy fan of milk tea, almost every day to have a cup. However, after the milk tea shop changed the paper straw, Xiao Zhao said bluntly: The happiness of drinking milk tea is gone . "The paper straw is not good at all, often can not poke into the cup seal of the milk tea cup, and soak for a while to bubble soft , a lot of milk tea in the" material "can not suck up, often suck the mouth pain, drink up there is a strange taste ." "Complained Xiao Zhao.

The reporter collected paper straws and polylactic acid (PLA) degradable straws from four beverage stores, inserted them in warm water at about 40 degrees Celsius, and took it out again after 15 minutes: Two kinds of paper straws were soaked in water at one end of the obvious expansion, one of them is cracked, gently pinch with the hand, the lower end of the paper straw shriveled , with this straw to drink boiled water, you can feel the obvious "paper taste" .

And the two kinds of polylactic acid material degradable straws have no obvious shape changes, and the use of taste is not much different from the original plastic straws.

At present, a number of brand drink stores have replaced the poly-lactic acid (PLA) degradable straw with a better sense of use and stronger degradation ability, or provide two kinds of straws for customers to choose independently, and write a hint of "slightly affected taste" on the paper straw option. Customer Ms Sun said: "I generally only choose the store that offers PLA straws, so that it has the same taste as the original."

Since the use of paper straws is not good, why do many businesses choose paper straws?

According to industry insiders, This is mainly because of the cost problem . Polylactic acid (PLA), as a new type of biodegradable material, is made of renewable plant resources (such as corn, wheat, etc.) made of starch raw materials, its production cost is about 5 times higher than ordinary disposable plastic straws , and the production cost of paper straws is usually about 3 times higher than disposable plastic straws. And at present, the material supply and price system of polylactic acid straws is not yet fully mature.

In fact, the controversy over paper straws is not only whether it is good to use, but also whether paper straws are really environmentally friendly. Some people have questioned that The process of producing paper straws is the process of producing paper, and each step in it may produce different levels of pollution . The outer layer of some paper straws also has a plastic film made of a mixture of plastic and paper, which is difficult to separate from the paper straw, in the subsequent recycling and degradation process is more difficult to deal with .

In fact, in addition to disposable straws on the market at present, there are some recyclable straws made of stainless steel, glass, bamboo and other materials. Many businesses do not take the initiative to provide disposable straws, but "do something" on the lid of the drink cup to make a direct drink lid that is easy for customers to drink, and bring better experience to customers.

China's first advocate of zero waste lifestyle social enterprise founder Yu Yuan said: " real environmental protection should not affect the use experience , enterprises can develop a variety of easy to use and environmentally friendly materials to replace plastic straws that are difficult to degrade, and form a certain scale production to reduce costs. When people's acceptance is high, environmental awareness will naturally be promoted."

Source of this article by Beijing Evening News