The Last Straw

CityLab’s Kriston Capps gets you ready for the drinks of the season. “Summer is here and so are frozen daiquiris, iced lattes, lemonades, hibiscus mint teas, root-beer floats, frozen margs, Arnold Palmers, chocolate milk, nitro cold brews, bloody marys, Capri Suns, milkshakes, adult milkshakes, caipirinhas, rosé in a can, tiki drinks, and ice-cold water out of a mason jar. Kick off your shoes, throw on some shades, and carefully peel back the individual wrapper to sunny vibes. The world’s most utterly disposable product is the coin of the realm: Unwrap, sip, noisy-gurgling-sound, repeat—every day, twice a day, three times in a single happy hour. It’s straw season, mofos.” At issue are straws. While they might provide an assist in your quest to get totally tubular, when it comes to the environment, straws suck. “It’s time to crack down on single-use plastic drinking utensils, the world’s most disposable product.”

+ Ben Lecomte is likely to encounter many straws as he takes a swim to bring attention to plastic pollution. He just jumped into the Pacific Ocean from the shores of Choshi in Japan and he’ll jump out in San Francisco (a route that will take him through the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch).