ISO standard for plastic straws announced

The first people to use straws would have been the Sumerians in the fourth millennium B.C., probably to drink beer. Some straws were made of gold set with the precious blue stone lapis lazuli; others were made of paper or grass. Today, drinking straws are made of plastic and are used to drink various types of beverages.

Billions of drinking straws are produced yearly all over the world. These straws come in a wide range of colors, lengths and styles.  Yet despite their worldwide use, plastic (polypropylene) straws had never been the subject of standards and specifications.

A recently published International Standard, ISO 18188:2016, Specification of polypropylene drinking straws, provides general requirements for dimensions and performance properties of plastic straws. The standard  will help manufacturers to produce consistent, quality products. ISO 18188 covers the whole range of plastic straws: straight, flexible, extendable, spoon-shaped intended for slushes, or with a sharp tip intended for insertion through film-sealed containers, all these shapes find proper specifications.

The standard specifies that the plastic must conform to the food contact requirements of the market. Plastic straws also have to show their resistance to hot and cold temperatures and bend without rupture.
ISO 18188 was developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 61, Plastics, Subcommittee SC 11, Products, whose secretariat is held by JISC, the ISO member for Japan.