The Hoarding of Plastic Straws

As we all know ever since the turtle video went viral there has been a renewed push to ban plastic straws. A lot of cities are banning them and more and more restaurants are removing them for paper straws. I've personally noticed that if you don't ask for a straw at a sit down or fast food restaurant you will not get one. I'm sure we can all agree that, whether we agree with it or not, the days of plastic straws in public are nearing an end.

Sure you'll still be able to buy them online and at places like Walmart and party stores, but you won't see any of them at restaurants and a lot of other businesses. While I personally don't care about using a plastic straw for water and soft drinks, they are pretty important to me for mixed drinks like Hurricanes and Daiquiris.

I have personally started to stock up on plastic straws before they are banned. I started about six months ago and whenever I'm at a fast food place I'll grab like 5 or 6.

Now please spare me the "you are stealing" comments. The way I look at it, it's essentially a "straw advance" (yes like a cash advance), getting more straws now knowing I won't be getting any straws when they switch over to paper straws. We all know prices won't go down when they stop giving you plastic straws. If anything they'll probably use paper straws as an excuse to raise prices.

But are any of you doing the same thing? Stocking up on plastic straws before they are banned or simply removed? If you disagree with people doing this, do you base that disagreement on a financial argument (you are raising costs for that business) or a moral argument (you are going to be hurting the environment)?