As was noted in a recent Trump executive order reversing government efforts to remove plastic straws, "Plastic straws are often replaced by paper straws, which are nonfunctional, use chemicals that may carry risks to human health, are more expensive to produce than plastic straws, and often force users to use multiple straws."
While this reads more like a pub rant against paper straws than an executive order, I don't believe all of these points are invalid. My proposal is to create another alternative straw. One that maintains structural integrity after being submerged in liquid for thirty minutes and one that is so cost competitive that it is free!
That's where the One Last Use product comes in. After a beverage has been poured out of its aluminum can, the can is cut and wrapped into a drinking straw to be used prior to being recycled.
I initially experimented with cutlery, but found that a straw made more sense both because it has an immediate use and direct relationship with the beverage can it came from, and because the edges of a fork or spoon are much more difficult to turn into a safe shape.
I have settled on a mechanism that rolls the aluminum at a 45° angle, wrapping over itself, much like the current paper straws do, then using a small label to keep the straw's shape
a number of prototypes (even more not shown here) went into the development of this machine.
