Approximately what year were people drinking from plastic straws?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_straw
In 1888, Marvin Stone patented the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws. Stone was already a producer of paper cigarette holders. His idea was to make paper drinking straws. Before his straws, beverage drinkers were using the natural rye grass straws.

Stone made his prototype straw by winding strips of paper around a pencil and gluing it together. He then experimented with paraffin-coated manila paper, so the straws would not become soggy while someone was drinking. Marvin Stone decided the ideal straw was 8 1/2-inches long with a diameter just wide enough to prevent things like lemon seeds from being lodged in the tube.


The Plastic Straw. When I was a kid, drinking straws were made from paper. Imagine that—paper. That's the stuff they make paper towels out of. Talk about strong when wet—not! Oh, a paper straw was hollow all right, and you might be able to slurp up a Coke with one, if you were quick about it. A paper straw was a time bomb, a soggy drink-tube that could become unusably mushy, at either end, and at any time. When a paper straw collapsed, it wasn't a pretty thing. It happened suddenly and completely; cheek muscles could be strained. Worse, high viscosity drinks like milkshakes were simply impossible to consume through a paper straw. You GenX-ers out there—imagine not being able to drink a milkshake through a straw.

http://www.charlieanderson.com/three.htm

With a few deft strokes of chalk on a nameless Monsanto engineer's blackboard, the plastic straw was born, ultimately to change national beverage consumption habits forever. I can't remember the last time a plastic straw collapsed on me, except maybe trying to drink a Wendy's shake, which is almost a frozen yogurt anyway, and even if you could find a titanium/carbon fiber combination rigid enough you'd probably suck yourself into a hernia trying.

Answer 2

I guess from the 50s cause I remember drinking from waxed paper straws in the late 40s and early 50s.
I Cr 13;8a
10-20-6

Answer 3

1952

Answer 4

Most likley around the 1920s

Answer 5

I would say in the 1950's