Given what Terry Lee has been through, a plastic straw doesn't seem like much to ask for.
In 2015, he was living in the small South Australian township of Wasleys when the deadly Pinery bushfire ripped through.
Attempting to escape the flames, Terry instead found himself in their path. Amid the ferocious heat, he collapsed on the ground.
"I'm lucky to be alive," he says.
"I was lying there, and basically burning while I was lying there — that's why I had to have the amputations."
Terry suffered irreversible lung damage, burns to 75 per cent of his body, and lost an eye and both of his hands.
He was hospitalised for 12 months, spending time in intensive care, the burns unit, and then rehab.
With the love and support of his wife, Moira, he's learnt to adjust to life's challenges, often resorting to improvised solutions (he uses his nose to turn the pages of his e-book) — but when a ban on plastic straws came into effect last year, it presented another obstacle.
"The only way I can hold a drink independently is to have it in my top pocket," he says.
"I always used plastic straws before they were legislated out of existence. Paper straws are no good because if you're drinking a hot drink they go soft and soggy."
For Terry, the other alternatives also have downsides: reusable silicone straws take on the taste of the liquids that pass through them and are difficult to clean, and metal ones become too hot.
"A very important aspect of the plastic straws is not only do they come in different lengths but they have a bendy bit," he says.
"The non-plastic straws are too short, as well as not being very suitable, and quite often I need to drink from a water bottle and the paper straws disappear and I can't get them out."
Well before the plastic straw ban was introduced, when disability advocates were warning of the potential downsides, Moira Lee stocked up on plastic straws, but that stockpile is running low.
She has resorted to carrying silicone straws in her bag, but sometimes forgets, and says asking a retailer for a straw — of any variety — feels like asking for contraband.
"Our experience is that everywhere we go I have to order a drink and then ask for a straw, which is under the counter," she says.
"I have to explain that my husband has no hands. It's hard enough to cope with life as it is without having to say this is the reason.
"Why do you have to fight for a straw? It's crazy."
'Come and live in our life'
South Australia's straw ban came into effect in March 2021, and Environment Minister Susan Close said it had so far proven highly successful in achieving its goal of radically reducing the amount of plastic waste.
"Before the ban, 700,000 plastic straws were used in South Australia every day," Ms Close said in a statement.
"In just the first six months, 20 million plastic straws were taken out of the waste stream and our marine environment."
The legislation permits exemptions allowing for the "sale, supply or distribution of single-use plastic drinking straws" to people with "a disability or medical requirement".
Ms Close said that — in addition to cafes, restaurants, and medical and care facilities — chemists were "among the businesses allowed to stock plastic straws and many do, including National Pharmacies".
But, crucially, it is up to businesses to apply for exemptions.
"It is not mandatory for prescribed businesses to have straws in stock," the minister conceded, adding that a list of participating stores is available at the government's Replace the Waste website.
But Moira says she cannot remember the last time she was at a venue that kept plastic straws — and she is not alone.
Karina McDonald's seven-year-old son, Jake, lives with quadriplegic cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
She says she has become so accustomed to being told there are no plastic straws available, she has stopped asking stores whether they stock them.
"If [Jake] happens to have a steel straw in his mouth at the time he startles, it's going to push to the back of his throat. It's a choking hazard," Ms McDonald says.
"It's not safe. Metal straws are the worst thing for him.
"It's a funny society that we live in where we feel like we're doing something wrong by asking for a straw, but I can go to the local supermarket and have snow peas still wrapped up in plastic."
Ms McDonald works for disability service provider SACARE, which is currently seeking feedback on the ban.
"We would love to hear from the community on what kind of options they're coming across, and any hacks or tips or tricks," she says.
Karina, Terry and Moira all accept the environmental reasons behind the move away from single-use plastics — but they are also pleading for compromise.
"Some of the ones who advocate strongly to 'get rid of all this stuff', I'd like to get them to come and live in our life," Moira says.
"''Inclusiveness' is the go-to word these days," Terry adds.
"But 'inclusiveness' means you've got to take into account minorities, who require some sort of say."
