Reusable straw trend sparks rise in fake replicas

Counterfeiters are taking advantage of the re-usable straw phenomenon and selling knock-off copies – which ultimately cause more waste.

Around 8.5 billion plastic straws are thrown away each year, contributing to 79 per cent of the plastic waste in landfills or the natural environment. Currently, 9 per cent of plastic is recycled and the remining 12 per cent is incinerated, which pollutes the environment.

Metal straws are becoming much more popular, since some countries and major corporations are banning their plastic counterparts to protect sea life and the environment from more plastic.

The first company to start selling a reusable collapsible straw was FinalStraw, selling a metal product that folds into a carrying case made from recycled plastic.

Now counterfeiters are flooding the online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay with their own versions of these stainless steel straws, with some appearing months before the release of the official FinalStraw product.

The company has said it has come across more than 200 listings on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and Alibaba, all of which are fraudulently using its FinalStraw’s promotional images to advertise their counterfeits.

These counterfeit items do not have good durability, and FinalStraw has received complaints from disgruntled purchasers about the items falling apart, even though the company says it doesn’t have any listings on the online retailers, as the final product won’t be ready until November.

Emma Cohen, the founder of FinalStraw, said that “the whole purpose was to reduce waste,” and added that the counterfeit straws are creating a bigger waste problem as the producers have “zero regard to social or environmental responsibility.”

“We have ordered a few of these imposters, and they are absolute junk. They fall apart immediately and are made with questionable materials,” she said on the company’s Kickstarter page.