The plastic ban has deified plastic straws, with one straw selling for $1,500!

In recent years, many countries around the world have introduced plastic restrictions or bans. In March last year , the European Parliament passed a "plastic ban" with an overwhelming vote: by 2021, EU member states will ban the use of 10 disposable plastic products including disposable plastic tableware, plastic cotton swabs, plastic straws, and plastic stirring sticks.

This plastic ban was first proposed in May 2018 and was called the "strictest plastic ban in history". It was passed with an overwhelming result of 560 votes in favor, 35 votes in favor, and 28 abstentions. It is considered a heavy blow against plastic waste invading beaches and polluting the ocean.

However, just when everyone thought that Europe was about to enter a new era of environmental protection, a disposable plastic straw sold at a high price on eBay attracted everyone's attention: an American seller sold a "McDonald's original plastic straw" for a high price of $1,500. If buyers think this is too expensive, there is a cheaper one here - $1,300... well, much more affordable.

Ever since McDonald's announced that it would stop using plastic straws and replace them with paper straws, many foreigners have been begging to switch back to plastic straws. The reason is naturally that paper straws are too difficult to use: McDonald's claims that its paper straws can be soaked in drinks for 30 minutes, but in fact, in most cases, the paper straws soften and become rotten before a few sips of the drink are taken. Some people even have their straws melt into the drink and are drunk by themselves...

Especially when drinking milkshakes, you can't get the milkshake with a paper straw. Some people even called on McDonald's to issue an instruction manual on Twitter to teach you how to drink milkshakes with a paper straw. If you run into someone who likes to bite the straw when drinking a drink, it will be even more painful. After just a few sips of the drink, the straw becomes like this:

Based on the unpleasant experience of using paper straws, trying to grab the last "original straw" from McDonald's , putting it on eBay and making a profit from it has become a way for speculators to make a fortune. As early as 2019, some people put McDonald's plastic straws on eBay as collectibles for sale, and the price was once hyped up to 40,000 yuan.

Although the high-priced sale of plastic straws seems like an ironic performance art, the real valuable information revealed by this incident is that people have not yet found something that can completely replace plastic products. As for McDonald's straws alone, McDonald's in the UK can use 1.8 million straws a day , which is a very large market. If someone can be the first to find a perfect substitute for plastic straws, there is no doubt that they have obtained the code to wealth.

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