With Plastic Straw Ban, Washington Turns Its Back On Its Own Invention

Umer Jamshaid Published June 24, 2019 | 08:50 AM

Washington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jun, 2019 ) :"How do you drink a milkshake without a straw?" It is a question the city of Washington will soon face after deciding, in the interest of the environment, to ban plastic drinking straws -- an almost sacrilegious act in the birthplace of this simple object, a seemingly indispensable part of daily American life.

In the last century, millions of straws were produced in the Stone Straw Building, a stolid-looking structure of yellowing brick in a residential neighborhood. The building now houses the capital's transit police headquarters.

The only visible sign of its historic character comes from a discreet commemorative plaque affixed to a wall above a garbage bin that honors the memory of Marvin C. Stone, "Inventor of the Paper Straw." According to legend, Stone, who settled in Washington after being wounded while fighting for the Union side in the Civil War, had the inspiration one evening while sipping on his favorite cocktail, a mint julep.

At that time, people sometimes used actual straws -- dried lengths of ryegrass -- for drinking, but Stone was put off by the inescapable rye-flavored residue they imparted.

So he adapted a machine already in use for making paper cigarette holders, instead wrapping spirals of paper around a pencil-like cylinder, attaching the ends with wax and then removing the cylinder.

He filed for a patent in 1888 -- the objective, he said in his application, was to create a "cheap, durable and unobjectionable substitute for natural straws commonly used for the administration of medicines, beverages, &c." -- and the rest is history.

But almost a century and a half later, his ungrateful adoptive home became the second large US city, after Seattle, to ban the plastic descendants of Stone's popular invention.

The ban technically took effect January 1 but it came with a grace period, meant to ease the transition for restaurants and businesses, that ends July 1.