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Comment by zukzuk | Hacker News Reader

Because they are so utterly pointless. Plastic straws are a symbol of an almost entirely unnecessary use of plastic.

And that symbolism — as seems to be the case with just about anything with any semblance of symbolic value nowadays — has become politicized and polarized, which in turn has further elevated straws' symbolic value for both sides (there's a "straw man argument" pun here somewhere).

The right is obsessed with how the left is trying to control even the most trivial aspects of everyone's lives, and the left is obsessed with how the right would rather selfishly spew plastic into the environment than to give up even the most trivial conveniences.

This feels like a tension that can exist only in the Twitterverse. I really can't imagine pre-internet society actually having strong opinions about any of this.

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So is double packaging (eg plastic bottles wrapped in plastic to form a "sixpack", on a pallet, wrapped in more plastic, so plastic within a plastic within a plastic, prepackaged bananas, double packed cosmetics, toothpaste in plastic covered cardboard boxes, etc.), and it contributes a lot more (by weight of trash) than straws.

But we have basically zero impact on the first, and drinks in a plastic bottle are sometimes literally the only choice, and no politician dares mention cocacola and walmart, but we all get blamed for straws that we maybe use twice a year... in mcdonalds.

Straws are essential for drinks served with ice, in particular cocktails.

Definitely not "essential" for cold drinks

Since the ice cubes float on top, your nose and upper lip tends to bump into them otherwise. Maybe there’s some clever drinking glass design that could avoid that.

large ice cubes that are actually square solve this problem pretty well.

Huh, not in my experience.

Nose? It's perfectly possible to drink anything without getting your nose wet.

you can drink through a cocktail straw if you really want to, but they are intended for you to stir the drink to your preferred level of dilution. this is more like the least essential use of a straw. a small wooden stick would work just as well.

reusable glass / metal (or even durable plastic) are available. I use them at home all the time. I wouldn't mind them at a restaurant either, I mean we use glasses and dishes that are washed with every use when eating our why not straws?

A drink is far less likely to spill if you use a straw.

Yet somehow many of us manage to go about life without ever using a straw or spilling anything.

It's really not that hard...

Being able to be less careful, or be a less coordinated person, and yet not spill, has utility.

Not at the expense of manufacturing, consuming and disposing of plastic (or PFAS...)

I was responding to zukzuk's argument, that straws have no utility.

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