And I love it. It was a gift from C who presented it to me after I mentioned super casually, and not even in that devious leaving a tab open to a Gucci handbag gift-hint-dropping way, that I had wanted to get a metal boba straw. That it was the least I could do for the environment as plastic churns through the oceans and gets stuck in turtle bellies and clogs up the coral reefs. You wanna watch a movie that’ll make you reconsider your disposable plastic use choices? Plastic China. Did you know that all the plastic that’s ever been created still exists? I read that on a Greenpeace website and don’t totally understand it but I think it means that even when plastic is recycled it can only be melted down and refashioned. It never fully disintegrates. I think that’s why NYC’s insane rule that people bag their recycling in clear plastic bags makes me want to stab my eyeballs out.
My roommates and I pay for plastic bags that are called “recycling plastic bags.” A company manufactures new plastic bags solely for the purpose of enabling people to recycle pre-existing plastic and it makes so very little sense for the fish and the children and the environment. And then, one day, voila! C gave me my own boba straw in a repurposed chopsticks case with its edges sanded down to make room for the chubby straw. The straw even came with a thin bottle brush for cleaning. I feel like a freaking boba champion when I get to turn down the straws that boba shop workers hand out and whip out my boba straw case, and I love how unobtrusive it is for me to make this small gesture for the environment. Also, let’s be real. I am the only person I know who carries one around town and I think we should all get on board but like I kind of love the puzzled looks I get.
But I don’t get to bask guilt-free just yet. I’m still generating trash–the cup is its own issue. Anyone who knows anything about boba shops knows that the cup and the seal over it are all essential to the drink-making process. The cashier prints out a sticker label with your order specifications, slaps it on the disposable plastic cup, hands it off to the drink maker, who fills it, then puts it through the plastic top sealer before wiping it down and turning the entirely sealed cup upside down a few times to make sure it’s all mixed up for the customer.
I read those zero waste blogs. I know what I ought to be doing! But I haven’t gotten the guts up yet to hand over some Ball jar with a screw top to a 20-year-old kid who’s super slammed so they can figure out how to fill, mix, and then cap my medium Yakult grapefruit green tea light ice 50 percent sugar with boba, you know? I’ve got the long range view, but they’re just trying to get their orders out the door.
So I’m not there. But I’m working on it.
WAIT THERE’S MORE:
-Or a bamboo one?!?
-Taiwan is phasing out plastic food and drink containers by 2020. (The photo editor missed a real opportunity to use a photo of boba here, it being Taiwan and all.)