After years of grumbling from customers, a Japanese supplier is stepping in with a new straw material.

Roughly five years ago, Starbucks Japan switched from plastic straws to paper ones, in an effort to be more environmentally friendly. But while this change was made in order to make Mother Nature happy, customers have had more mixed feelings.

The common and consistent complaints have been that paper straws are flimsy and have a noticeably unpleasant taste, with the unwanted flavor tending to become even more pronounced as the straw’s material dissolves and deteriorates. With Japanese consumers having especially high standards regarding how their food and beverages look and taste, as well as a general dislike for things that seem messy or dirty, Starbucks’ paper straws haven’t been particularly popular.

So there are now a lot of people happy to hear that Starbucks Japan is ready to get rid of paper straws, and very soon. They’re not backpedaling to petroleum-based plastics for their sipping apparatuses, though. Instead, Starbucks Japan’s new straws will be made out of plant-based biomass plastic. Specifically, they’ll be using Osaka-based Kaneka Corporation’s Green Planet-branded bioplastic material. In doing so, Starbucks hopes to address customers’ dissatisfaction with paper straws while still utilizing a more ecologically responsible material than traditional plastic.

Straw material is an especially important matter for Starbucks branches in Japan. If you’ve spent much time on our site, you probably know that Japan loves Frappuccinos, and the chain is often seen here as much as an emporium for slushy dessert drinks as it is a coffeehouse. So with Frappuccinos, which are drunk with a straw, being arguably Starbucks Japan’s most popular product, anything that makes them more enjoyable is a win-win for the chain and its customers.

The new biomass plastic straws are scheduled to be introduced first at Starbucks Japan branches in Okinawa Prefecture next month, and to expand to all of the approximately 2,000 Starbucks Japan locations across the county in March.

Source: TBS News Dig, Yomiuri Shimbun, Oricon News
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