It has been one month since the "straw plastic ban" was officially implemented. In response to the national call, the catering industry has stopped using non-degradable plastic straws and replaced them with paper straws and PLA polylactic acid biodegradable straws.
Due to cost considerations, many milk tea brands start using paper straws, but this has aroused dissatisfaction among many consumers, and many consumers even describe "drinking milk tea with paper straws like a toilet paper core" and "drinking" Drinking a paper straw suddenly spread out", what is going on?
The new plastic restriction order has been implemented for one month: milk tea consumers have complained about the experience of using paper straws
In a milk tea shop in Pudong New District, Shanghai, consumers and delivery staff are queuing to receive milk tea.
In order to implement the requirements of the new plastic restriction order, this milk tea shop has stopped using non-degradable plastic straws a month ago and replaced them with paper straws, but this has caused dissatisfaction among many consumers.
Consumers of milk tea in Shanghai: It affects my pleasure of drinking milk tea. Halfway through drinking it, it will be a bit rotten and can't suck.
Shanghai milk tea consumers: From an environmental perspective, it is worth promoting, but paper straws are indeed not liked by many people, because they affect the taste.
It is understood that most milk tea shops currently use paper straws, one of the reasons is the difference in cost.
Some milk tea merchants told reporters that the cost of traditional non-degradable plastic straws is about 1 cent per tube, while the cost of paper straws is about 3 cents per tube, while the cost of PLA degradable plastic straws is the highest, about 5 cents per tube. , Nearly twice the size of paper straws.
In addition, there are many milk tea brands on the street visited by the reporter. The reporter found that some milk tea shops have begun to provide PLA degradable straws.
Reporter's on-site evaluation: the paper straw swells and becomes soft after being inserted into the milk tea for an hour
In response to the poor experience of using paper straws, the reporter also made a comparative evaluation of straws in some milk tea shops. What are the results?
The reporter bought a cup of milk tea from 4 different milk tea shops. Two of them only provide paper straws, one only provides PLA degradable straws, and one provides both straws.
Subsequently, the reporter put these three paper straws and a PLA degradable straw into milk tea for comparison.
Because the best time to use milk tea is within an hour, the reporter inserted all these straws into the milk tea an hour ago.
This kind of straw has obvious swelling. If you touch it by hand, it feels that it is very soft and easily deformed.
Compared with unused similar straws, the contrast is still obvious.
This kind of finest, the most obvious change, you can see that its deformation has been very serious.
If it is this kind of PLA polylactic acid straw, its shape change is not very serious.
According to the reporter's personal feelings, these replaced straws do not have a great impact on the taste of milk tea. The main change is that these straws will gradually become soft during use.
In this regard, experts give suggestions to ensure the consumption experience of milk tea lovers, which requires coordinated efforts from the supply side and the consumer side.
While implementing the plastic restriction order, the catering industry should also raise requirements in terms of product design and product quality; on the other hand, consumers can also try to bring their own recyclable straws made of stainless steel and tempered glass.
Tang Jiansheng, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission: Whether it is from the consumer side, or from the production and enterprise side, in fact, all of us are willing to pay for environmental protection, but it has a premise that consumers pay for it. In the future, whether you can really have a good experience, this may be the key point of the whole.
Improve user experience Korean paper straws are popular
South Korea is also facing the problem of finding alternatives to disposable plastic straws.
Many local restaurants are gradually replacing long-used disposable plastic straws with environmentally friendly straws. Many straw manufacturers have also seen the business opportunities and continue to develop paper straw products that are environmentally friendly and have a better user experience.
This is a paper straw factory in Busan, South Korea. They produce paper straws for hundreds of coffee shops and some online shopping platforms in South Korea.
The person in charge told reporters that this paper straw uses a lot of natural pulp, which increases the thickness of the base paper. At the same time, they also use a special grease to replace the adhesive to avoid gaps in the winding of the base paper.
Such a paper straw can be soaked in hot water for two days, or even up to 5 days in ice water.
This company has controlled the wholesale price of a single root at around 20 won through large-scale and automated production, which is about RMB 1 cent and 2 cents. The current average daily production volume has reached 1 million.
As manufacturers continue to develop and update paper straws, people have become accustomed to using paper straws with a better experience.
A coffee company with more than 1,300 stores in South Korea has completely stopped using disposable plastic straws and replaced them with more environmentally friendly paper straws.
After the implementation of this measure, the company can reduce the use of 180 million plastic straws each year.
South Korean straw manufacturers have also seen the business opportunities. At present, edible rice straws, glass, silicone straws and other environmentally friendly straws have appeared on the market.
Strengthen the research and development of new technology and new materials to make straws environmentally friendly and cheap
Rejecting disposable plastic straws is already an international trend, and everyone is looking for suitable alternatives.
Although paper straws are environmentally friendly, the user experience needs to be improved.
The most important way to solve this problem is to increase efforts to develop new materials and new processes as soon as possible. After mass production, the price may be reduced. This requires the joint efforts of the government, scientific research institutions and enterprises.