WJ: As bans on plastic straws proliferate, the business of making reusable straws is booming. But one company that wants to sell collapsible steel straws says the competition to market the straws is leading to a flood of counterfeits.
In April, a company called FinalStraw started a Kickstarter campaign to produce a reusable, collapsible, stainless steel straw that consumers could reuse. The company is hoping that its product will appear on Amazon and other shopping sites in November.
As reported by The Independent, the effort was a quick success, surpassing its goal within 24 hours.
Now, other producers are flooding the market, leaving FinalStraw a step behind.
Emma Cohen, the company’s co-founder, complained about what she called counterfeit straws in an interview with BuzzFeed News. The site reported that straws were being sold online using FinalStraw’s promotional images, and that they were selling for about half of the $20 price from FinalStraw. MORE
I’m waiting for those cities that have these bans to set up border checkpoints to search cars for smuggled in plastic straws. I wonder if individual streets could declare themselves sanctuary streets where people with illegal plastic straws can hide out from the authorities?
This whole straw thing sucks and smells tainted by hippie busybodies.
Rebrand plastic straws as “polymeric fluid delivery tubing” or something similar and sell them to Californians via the internet. idiots in the CA assembly will be too stupid to catch on for months, after which you change the name again.
Can’t wait for them to determine straw replacements from China cause cancer in a few years.
Banning straws because the pols suck anyway.
Those reusable steel straws; what caliber are they available in?
$20 for a metal straw that you are supposed to lug around all day in case you want something to drink that may require a straw? Trump’s economy must be doing really well for people to spend this kind of money on a straw.
One of the few Reps in the CA legislature ought to introduce a bill allowing disposable straws state-wide as long as they are made from organically grown hemp fiber and free range beeswax.
From Wyatt:”$20 for a metal straw that you are supposed to lug around all day in case you want something to drink that may require a straw? Trump’s economy must be doing really well for people to spend this kind of money on a straw.”
Heh, the ones from Yeti will cost $65, but it comes with the ‘smug signal’ sticker for the back window on your Prius.
@Wyatt – For a lower-cost option, go to a parking lot where you’re likely to find a high concentration of older cars, say a Walmart. Look for a car with COEXIST or I’M WITH HER bumper stickers, and an old fashioned telescoping steel radio antenna. Break off the antenna, then trim it about five inches above and five inches below a joint, smooth the edges, and voilà! a portable collapsing straw.
Better run it through the dishwasher before sucking on it, though.
My new $4 buck Copper straw from Amazon is very good, and I like to consume extra Copper anyways. The Copper stays cold, if the drink is cold.
I absolutely guarantee that this straw furor will lead to greater environmental damage. It won’t be specifically measurable of course, so plenty of deniability, but we have already seen actions like Starbucks’ new cup lid. It will lead to more votes for conservatives too, another unintended consequence.
Also, a reusable straw is extremely difficult to clean well – which is precisely why we use disposable ones!
My Other Straw Sucks too!
or
I’d rather be sucking a Yeti!
1st world problems. meh
meanwhile in Barcelona.
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/08/american-tourist-severely-assaulted-by-african-migrants-in-the-heart-of-barcelona/
‘throw some more manteros on the barbie’
I bought a box of a couple hundred bubble tea straws at an asian market about twenty years ago. I put about ten in the center console of my vehicles about twice a year. One of the local burger joints has frozen custard shakes that I love, but it is almost impossible to suck them through the straw they supply until they are nearly melted. These baby’s would probably qualify as magnum assault straw sentencing enhancement if the authorities ever caught me with contraband like that
Didn’t prohibition teach these asswipes anything.
Restaurant owners in California (particularly Santa Barbara) should declare themselves “Straw Sanctuaries” and allow single-use plastic straws “Only in their restaurants.” It’d be fun to see the lawyers trying to argue their way around that one.
Illegal back alley straws
Kickstarter is just a super-convenient way to give your ideas to Chinese counterfeiters.
Act 1: ban plastic shopping bags for reusable bags.
Act 2: ban plastic straws for reusable straws.
Finale: no improvement for the environment and many people sickened reusing things that shouldn’t have been.
I can’t believe Cali…separating children from their straws. Maybe the 9th Circuit will weigh in and make them reunite all children with their straws, wheres the media outrage over this?
Easier to just rinse/clean/carry your own plastic straw and reuse it than a collapsing metal straw.
If you carry your own, will that have to be concealed or open carry?
And now imagine that same mentality in complete control over your health care.
They can have my straw when they pull it from my cold dead hand.
A good friend of mine in CA bought 10k plastic straws online from Costco and shipped em to the SB city council. Lets see if they cover it on the baja norte noticero. He paid cash so they cant track him. We should all copy him
^^^^was me^^^
The best plastic replacement I’ve seen is a plastic straw that looks like a long hypodermic needle.
Conceal Carry. The only way to drink.
Psst! Reusable straws spread drug-resistant bacteria that turns Liberals into Conservatives. Pass it on.