The petty frustration of paper straws at 7-11, served in your Slurpee, the straw always so deteriorated by the time you reach bottom it's function as a spoon is destroyed, the straw unraveled, falling limply into bits to spill bits of frozen ice and sugar all over your shirt and pants.
The cup - plastic, embossed with a tiny recycle logo. The dome lid, as well, plastic. Why are not the straws plastic? That's right, because they're bad for the environment.
Here's an idea, why not emboss a tiny recycle logo onto the straw as well?
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Look around any 7-11, all of them, there's no place to recycle your cups or lids. It's presumed that once you drink your Slurpee you'll pitch it in the trash. The recycle logo, it's to put the blame on you - if you don't recycle it, take it home and loving scrub it out before putting it the recycle bin, well, then, it's because you're a shitty person, not because they're a shitty company, see, they gave you a paper straw, didn't they?
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And so it goes. Like with the 'reusable' bags every grocery/liquor/boutique store wants to sell you, or travel mugs, that only ever see a fraction of the uses they'd need to be superior to their disposable counterparts. This greenwashing, it's the new "Emperor's New Clothes', a social hypocrisy that pretends to address and solve a problem that itself created and is in fact exacerbating.
I'm so fucking done with it all ... I want a plastic straw.