Biodegradable Straws: What They're Made Of, Why They Matter & Where To Get Them

Single-use plastic straws are quickly falling out of style as people recognize them for what they are: wasteful, unnecessary, and environmentally damaging.

Since momentum built around the fact that single-use plastic straws play a major part in polluting our land and waterways because they aren't recyclable, Seattle, Malibu, and the United Kingdom have banned them from public establishments, Starbucks has opted to take them out of cafes, and American Airlines will no longer offer them on flights. American Airlines goes through an estimated 22 million plastic straws a year; Starbucks up to 2 billion.

While the straw movement might seem insignificant when you think about all the other plastic clogging our environment, any progress is good. And this large public shift proves that sweeping sustainable change can happen, more or less, overnight. Plus, our environment isn't the only beneficiary of these recent bans: Reusable and eco-friendly straws are now more in vogue than ever before.

"At this moment, the global PLA [plant-based plastic] and paper straw market is very stressed, and product delivery has been delayed across the board," David J. Fridland, who works on sustainability for food service provider Eco-Products, says. "We view this as an extremely positive trend that will get more and more brands and companies on the zero-waste journey." Some estimates place the increased demand for straw alternatives as high as 5,000 percent in recent months.

Plastic waste has become all but ubiquitous around the world (each year, we toss enough plastic to circle the earth four times over), and according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, plastic straws are one of the top five most common items found on our shores during International Coastal Cleanups. That's because they are super small and can easily evade trash cans, plus their shape and size make them difficult to recycle curbside.

Signs of this change have taken the form of plant-based straws—ones that, unlike petroleum-based plastics, don't take thousands of years, and a handful of toxins, to return to the earth. The term "biodegradable" is a catchall that means something is capable of breaking down, but the word "compostable" is more specific. "An aluminum can is 'biodegradable'—if you wait 200 years," explains Fridland. "In contrast, 'compostable' means something will break down in a reasonable amount of time, leave behind no toxic residue, and safely become an additive to soil."

However, just because a straw is compostable doesn't mean it can be thrown into your home compost bin to be turned into soil for your backyard. Confusing, I know! If a box of straws is marked with a recycling number 7, they are likely PLA (Poly-Lactic Acid), a type of plastic that is made from corn or sugar cane instead of petroleum that is too finicky to compost at home. They must be sent to a large-scale facility that conducts more heat to break down trash into nutrients. Like plastic straws, you should NOT recycle these, tempting as it might be, because they can clog the process.

PLA is one of the most commonly found plastic straw substitutes these days, but you can now find straws made from paper, bamboo, and grain, too—all of which have varying levels of biodegradability.

Reusable straws (some of which are biodegradable too, like Bambu) are another option. Brands like Simply Straws (made of glass) and Klean Kanteen (made of metal) are pumping out straws meant to be reused again and again, and these days even Tiffany's is offering a luxe sterling silver alternative to the tune of $250 if you really want to slurp down that matcha latte in style.