Woodstock’s Boss Straw owner asks Trump not to put him out of business – but doesn’t regret voting for him

While a number of McHenry County businesses are trying to navigate new or threatened tariffs, one enterprise might get jeopardized by a different action of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Woodstock-based Boss Straw provides paper straws for businesses and consumers nationwide. But business has been tapering off for the company since the Trump administration last month sought to end federal procurement of paper straws. Owner Guy Spinelli estimated about 40% of business was lost after that.

Spinelli, who voted for the president and doesn’t regret it, said Trump has said things about paper straws that are “not true.” When Trump issued his order saying he didn’t watch plastic straws available in federal government buildings, he said they “don’t work.”

In response to the order, Spinelli wrote an open letter on the company website inviting Donald Trump, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Trump’s grandchildren to meet with him and test out the straws for themselves.

In the letter, Spinelli wrote that he invested $2 million and 18 months into crafting the paper straw.

“We are a small business living the American dream, working hard to innovate and manufacture a product that contributes to our economy and our environment,” Spinelli wrote.

He concluded his open letter by asking the president to “give Boss Straw a chance to show you what American ingenuity can do; please don’t put this small-business owner out of business.”

Spinelli said his mission is to get in front of the president, and he’s reached out to the White House through mail, phone and email multiple times. He has not gotten a reply. He said he also reached out to Gov. JB Pritzker but has gotten “crickets” from the state.

Locally, Spinelli said he’s had a tough time getting businesses and restaurants on board with Boss Straw. In 2022, he called on the city of Woodstock to ban plastic. Officials at the time declined to pursue a plastic ban, and Spinelli doesn’t have any plans to take it up again with the city.

He said he got the idea for the paper straw company when he went to a chamber of commerce event and was served a paper straw “that disintegrated.”

After getting another disintegrating paper straw at a different chamber’s event, the idea for Boss Straw was born. He researched paper straws and learned about other complaints – that the straws could be tasted, would stick to the lips and weren’t strong enough. He worked with the paper industry and chemists to develop a straw that he says doesn’t do any of that.

The material his company uses is just fiber, and it can only be used for paper straws. He said the reason other paper straws fall apart is because they use the same kind of paper as copy paper.

Spinelli, 75, said 500 million plastic straws are used in the U.S. daily, and afterward, “Where do they go?”

Plastic straws are bad for people’s health and the environment, Spinelli said. According to The Associated Press, which cited the advocacy group Turtle Island Restoration Network, about 390 million plastic straws are used daily in America.

Spinelli said although he doesn’t recommend trying it, the straw is digestible because it is fiber. A cartoon turtle on the company’s website named Mr. Boss Straw encourages people to use the company’s hallmark product. The turtle says in an animation that the straw is “safe for you and me. Even if I eat one.” The turtle is a nod to the 2015 viral video of a sea turtle that had a plastic straw wedged in its nose, which sparked a shift away from plastic straws and toward paper straws.

Spinelli got national attention last month when he spoke to The Washington Post about the paper straw phase-out and its effects on his business. He said he got about 35 orders for small boxes of paper straws from people who are upset because they believe in paper straws, but also got about a dozen nasty phone calls from what he said were Democrats. When asked whether he was glad he did The Washington Post article, he said he was.

Spinelli got a lot of comments from people who expressed the sentiment that Spinelli got what he voted for, since he voted for Trump. When asked whether he regretted his vote, he said, “Absolutely not.”

Spinelli, who also owns a traditional paper company, Guy’s E Paper, said all of the straws' materials come from the U.S. So although he doesn’t expect his business to get hit by the Trump administration’s tariffs, Spinelli said he supports them because they level the playing field.

Spinelli said Fox News coming out against paper straws took him by surprise. Since the executive order on straws was issued, some chatter on the channel has expressed support for the administration’s actions.

About a year and a half ago, Spinelli sent his straws to Fox News, and host Jesse Watters tested them on air by putting one in water for 24 hours. After that, he took the straw out, drank from it and dubbed it “the best paper straw of all time,” according to a clip on the company website.

The company also guarantees its straw will last 24 hours in hot or cold drinks. If it doesn’t, people are entitled to get their money back, Spinelli said. So far, zero people have taken the company up on their offer.

Spinelli said he’s willing to go on any TV program and discuss the straws, adding that he just wants to tell people his story.