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Sustainable Living Tips / eco-friendly

Try These Reusable Sustainable Straws Now: Sustainable Living Tips

Disclaimer: I am often given products, services, etc in exchange for reviews. Despite this, all opinions are my own.

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plastic straws alternatives


Sustainable Living Tips

This series is designed to showcase small, actionable steps that anyone can take in order to make your lifestyle more sustainable. It doesn’t matter what level of sustainable living you are already on. These tips are intended to help you more easily navigate this new “trend” of being kind to our earth. Let’s work hard to make it more than a trend. We can make it our lifestyle. Everything can be done in a sustainable way. Let’s tackle a new sustainable living issue today!

Quick Facts:

  • The first known straws were Sumerian, found in tombs dating back to 3000 BC/BCE. They were made of gold. source
  • “Americans use 500 million drinking straws every day. To understand just how many straws 500 million really is, this would fill over 125 school buses with straws every day. That’s 46,400 school buses every year!” source
  • Over 6 million people watched the video of an endangered sea turtle with a straw stuck in his nostril. The researchers that discovered him very painfully removed the straw from his nose.
  • Plastic straws are one of the most common top 10 items that are found during coastal cleanups. source
  • “Common man-made pollutants that reach the ocean include pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastics, and other solids. Many of these pollutants collect at the ocean’s depths, where they are consumed by small marine organisms and introduced into the global food chain.” source

Straw Free’s bamboo straws

Several conscious people have teamed up and redesigned the traditional straw to make it more earth-friendly. Whether you want a glass or titanium straw, the choice is up to you. The important part is that you do choose them, and join me in saying “no straws please” and “I’m straw free!” There are straws for all types of drinks, from regular liquids like water or tea to smoothies!

I love these bamboo straws from Straw Free. Straw Free is an organization that focuses on creating solutions for the plastic pollution that we have created in the world. In addition to bringing light to this problem, they have developed a solution by creating straws from bamboo. The bamboo straws are created from bamboo stalks that are grown right in California. The Straw Free team harvests the bamboo stalks, cuts them to the correct straw length, cleans them and brands them with a “strawfree.org” engraving.

The bamboo straws are easy to clean and maintain – all you need is soap and water. Disposing of them won’t cause plastic pollution since they are a plant. Creating them doesn’t take a lot of water or energy. Bamboo straws are probably the most ingenious solution to the straw pollution problem.

straw free bamboo straws
straw free bamboo straw drinks
straw free

Straw Favorites Update:

May 2023
It has been over 6 years since I have written this post, and I’ve tried a lot of different sustainable products in that time. Sustainable straws have, of course, been part of that ongoing trial. I have found that I don’t really like bamboo anything after several uses. Bamboo straws and utensils are hard to keep clean because if they stay wet too long, germs grow. I especially don’t like bamboo toothbrushes. My favorite straws to date are the Final Straw “Big Straw” (their metal straw holds liquid in the center and it can’t be cleaned) and simple stainless steel straws that aren’t super tiny.

Reusable sustainable straws of every type

Glass

  • Simply Straws
  • Strawesome Straws
  • Glass Dharma

Stainless Steel & Titanium straws

  • U-Konserve
  • Eco at Heart
  • The Mulled Mind
  • Sippy

Bamboo & other Natural straws

  • Bambu
  • Brush with Bamboo
  • Straw Free
  • Harvest Straws
  • HAY! Straws

Paper Straws

  • Aardvark Straws
  • Susty Party

Silicone

  • GreenPaxx
  • Softy Straws
  • GoSili Siliskin Straws
  • Boon Snug Silicone Straws

Assorted Straws

  • Package Free Shop
  • FinalStraw (collapsable straw)
  • Klean Kanteen
  • KoffieStraw
  • Mighty Nest

Straw Accessories

  • StrawSleeves
  • Siliskin Straw Tops

My sustainable straw challenge to you (and me):

Say it with me now:  “I’m going to be straw free!” I challenge you to buy reusable and sustainable straws. The next time you buy fast food, tell them “no straws, please.” They may give you a crazy look, but don’t let that deter you. Take your plastic straw free drink home and use your sustainable straw to chug that sweet tea, or whatever you get. Afterwards, recycle your cup! Then, you’ve done it.  You’ve played your part in helping to keep our world clean. I thank you, the sea turtles thank you, the oceans thank you, the air and the trees thank you. Thank you.


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The Comments

  • Bamboo Sheets by Aloha Soft | Sustainable Living Tips — Old World New
    July 6, 2018

    […] to me, though, is the future we’re heading to with our unsustainable practices. I love bamboo straws, and now I love bamboo sheets. I hope you’ll join me and replace items with bamboo and other […]

    Reply
  • Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas — Old World New
    November 21, 2018

    […] go is an easy way to help them focus on their eco-friendly lifestyle. You’ll be helping them say NO to single use straws, and thus protecting wildlife that are easily harmed by single use plastic straw […]

    Reply
  • A Plastic-Free Challenge for Beginners — Old World New
    August 18, 2019

    […] Reusable straws […]

    Reply
  • The 8Rs of a Circular Economy — Old World New
    October 21, 2020

    […] more: Say “NO!” to Plastic Straws – Use Reusable Straws, […]

    Reply

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Hello from the garden today. Lots of visitors probably due to the heavy rains.
Hello from the garden today. Lots of visitors probably due to the heavy rains.
Hello from the garden today. Lots of visitors probably due to the heavy rains.
Hello from the garden today. Lots of visitors probably due to the heavy rains.
Hello from the garden today. Lots of visitors probably due to the heavy rains.
oldworldnew
oldworldnew
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Hello from the garden today. Lots of visitors probably due to the heavy rains.
2 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
1/5
Happy Earth Day 🌍🫶🏾🌱

I used to think “let me just get 5k followers.. 10k followers… one day I’ll have 20k followers…” to help people live more sustainably with the blog posts and social media posts I created. 10+ years of that led to burnout. And it never felt the same as when my friends and family started to live a little more sustainably because of something they learned from me. 

I hope you’ll be the inspiration for someone in your life to be a little bit more sustainable today. It’s such a good feeling to see the people closest to you thrift more, consume less, and think differently — more sustainably — about how we treat our world. 

Don’t push it, just live it. 

Happy Earth Day 🌍🫶🏾🌱
oldworldnew
oldworldnew
•
Follow
Happy Earth Day 🌍🫶🏾🌱 I used to think “let me just get 5k followers.. 10k followers… one day I’ll have 20k followers…” to help people live more sustainably with the blog posts and social media posts I created. 10+ years of that led to burnout. And it never felt the same as when my friends and family started to live a little more sustainably because of something they learned from me. I hope you’ll be the inspiration for someone in your life to be a little bit more sustainable today. It’s such a good feeling to see the people closest to you thrift more, consume less, and think differently — more sustainably — about how we treat our world. Don’t push it, just live it. Happy Earth Day 🌍🫶🏾🌱
4 weeks ago
View on Instagram |
2/5
🥶❌🌱 Not my plant babies! 

It’s been cold in Texas the past few days, so I acted accordingly to protect my little backyard garden that’s barely underway. 

Using thrifted sheets (once back drops in my “thrift fashionista style content” days lol) and thrifted clothes pins (I knew they would come in handy! 😆🙌🏾), as well as some old jugs, bottles, containers, and twigs. Hopefully they help keep the plants from getting too cold to survive.
oldworldnew
oldworldnew
•
Follow
🥶❌🌱 Not my plant babies! It’s been cold in Texas the past few days, so I acted accordingly to protect my little backyard garden that’s barely underway. Using thrifted sheets (once back drops in my “thrift fashionista style content” days lol) and thrifted clothes pins (I knew they would come in handy! 😆🙌🏾), as well as some old jugs, bottles, containers, and twigs. Hopefully they help keep the plants from getting too cold to survive.
1 month ago
View on Instagram |
3/5
Finally got a migrating bird LIGHTS OUT sign 🤩

Turn off your lights (outdoor & indoor) to limit light pollution and to protect migrating birds 🫶🏾🕊️

TURN ‘EM OFF! (in my Teddy Pendergrass voice 😂)

#lightsouttexas #lightsout #lightpollution #migratorybirds
oldworldnew
oldworldnew
•
Follow
Finally got a migrating bird LIGHTS OUT sign 🤩 Turn off your lights (outdoor & indoor) to limit light pollution and to protect migrating birds 🫶🏾🕊️ TURN ‘EM OFF! (in my Teddy Pendergrass voice 😂) #lightsouttexas #lightsout #lightpollution #migratorybirds
2 months ago
View on Instagram |
4/5
Do you reuse gift wrap?

Here are some things that I’ve thrifted to reuse as gift wrap each holiday season:

⭐️ tablecloths
⭐️ napkins & handkerchiefs (matching napkins sewn together can be used for larger gifts)
⭐️ Scarves (like from @wrappr)
⭐️ Cloth bags (like the ones your sheet sets come in)
⭐️ Pillowcases
⭐️ Curtains (can be used as gift wrap or to cover larger gifts like bikes or toy kitchens)

As long as you can fold the fabric into a square before wrapping the gift, it works well when using the furoshiki style wrapping technique. 

Comment WRAP for a few tips and tricks to wrap gifts in cloth fabric.
oldworldnew
oldworldnew
•
Follow
Do you reuse gift wrap? Here are some things that I’ve thrifted to reuse as gift wrap each holiday season: ⭐️ tablecloths ⭐️ napkins & handkerchiefs (matching napkins sewn together can be used for larger gifts) ⭐️ Scarves (like from @wrappr) ⭐️ Cloth bags (like the ones your sheet sets come in) ⭐️ Pillowcases ⭐️ Curtains (can be used as gift wrap or to cover larger gifts like bikes or toy kitchens) As long as you can fold the fabric into a square before wrapping the gift, it works well when using the furoshiki style wrapping technique. Comment WRAP for a few tips and tricks to wrap gifts in cloth fabric.
5 months ago
View on Instagram |
5/5
@oldworldnew

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