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Comment by armchairhacker | Hacker News Reader

I got a metal straw which is nice.

The main downside is you have to rinse it, and it comes with a brush to clean which I sometimes use. However I haven’t ever actually noticed it getting dirty. I drink water / tea flavored with stevia so it might not be as clean if you drink something else.

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We have plastic ones and I prefer the texture of those to metal. Reusable I mean obviously, not throwaway. Had them for years, we use them maybe three times a month (mainly after getting takeaway and requesting the drink without those awful paper straws) so probably that contributes to longevity. I haven't noticed it getting dirty either but we just run it through the dishwasher like other cutlery.

Takeaway: plastic isn't bad, just don't waste it, like every other resource from planet A...

Other cutlery only needs washing on the outside. How do you ensure the straw is also cleaned on the inside?

The dishwasher seems to do a good job at getting water everywhere, also with other irregularly-shaped objects. I never actually looked up whether anyone used some scientific method to measure the cleanliness of dishwasher-run straws, but based on that it doesn't seem dirty in the slightest also after years of use, it seems to work well enough. (And my keyboard would be higher on the priority list of things to improve thorough cleaning of, but that's probably just me.)

Edit: what about in between a fork's teeth? (Hope they're also called teeth in english, correct me if not, in that case I mean the individual prongs.) That seems somewhat similar if less elongated

Those metal straws scare me. Every time I see one, I imagine tripping or bumping into something with one in my mouth

Accidents are not common. But they're not impossible either. [1]

1: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/woman-dies-after-accidentally...

Let's get rid of straws and normalize sippy cups.

That's basically what a starbucks cup is

Genuinely curious, if it's just water or flavored tea, why do you need straws?

For thick milkshakes or smoothies and such I can possibly imagine, but I have never figured out why people use so many straws.

I've seen people drink sodas out of a can using a straw and never understood the reason.

>but I have never figured out why people use so many straws Lipstick, Teeth sensitivity, headgear getting in the way, in conjunction with a lid it helps keep the environment out of the cup, maintaining temperature, easier for children/those with motor co-ordination issues to drink. there are LOTS of reasons for it.

Quite often though, its done just because its the default option. economy of scale takes hold here...

these things almost always have plastic lids anyway, so why not build a straw like spout into the lid...

To be honest, I use it because I'm lazy and it makes it so I can drink without holding the cup.

They definitely need a brushing after smoothies, but apart from that I'm not the most worried about bacterial growth inside them. They're not used for cooking, so as long as there isn't significant biomass inside there it doesn't feel too dangerous - bacteria multiplying in food and manufacturing toxins is the thing I'm really careful about. I imagine people routinely get similar exposure to bacteria from many other sources they don't even think about.

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