How do I dispose of single-use plastic drinking straws in a way that they won’t end up jammed in a sea turtle’s nose?
We’ve all seen the horrific video, and while it’s certainly informative and horrifying, they don’t actually offer a solution, besides “Don’t use plastic straws.”
Got it. I have stainless steel straws I use at home and at work, and I always ask for “no straw” but sometimes they just give you one anyways.
How do I properly dispose of the ones I’ve already got?
Don’t throw it in the ocean? The overwhelming vast majority will end up in a landfill, not a turtle’s nose. If you are really that worried about it, burn it.
There is a theory that the great pacific garbage patch is recycled plastic that was sent from the Eest to China and China just dumped the ships to the ocean because of poor quality of recycle.
Since China has practically stopped accepting recycling from US/Europe, most of US recycled plastics is going into landfills.
The best course of action in my opinion will be to lobby waste management and your government to build safe incinerators.
Is the video of a turtle getting a straw stuck up its nose the reason they’re banning plastic straws? Really?
You already had the correct answer. You just don’t like it. Tough.
The garbage patch is mostly microplastics <0.5 cm, so while possible, it’s not plausible. Larger pieces can certainly decay into small pieces.
Second part seems to be true, and Waste Management is becoming strict about their acceptance policies.
This is not my theory but mentioned by Professor Thomas Kinnaman of Bucknell University.
The podcast was “Planet Money” Episode number 926. You can find the transcript of the show here :So, Should We Recycle? : Planet Money : NPR
Excerpt from the show :
Here’s another idea, if you really want that straw destroyed - twist it and put it inside a aluminum soda can and recycle it.
Aluminum cans have a plastic (epoxy) coating inside them which they burn off during recycling. Presumably your straw will be burned off too.
(I am saying the above “tongue-in-cheek”. Please lobby your local waste leadership to build incinerators)
Thanks. I’m reading another article, looks like the biggest source though is from nets and other commercial fishing equipment.
While that might be the answer to some question, it is certainly not the answer to the question he asked.
It is clear that the OP is talking about disposing of straws already in ones possession. Not using them doesn’t seem to apply to this situation at all.
If you want to give a terse answer then sending them to a landfill seems best.
The problem is that to ensure that random straws don’t get strewn about on the journey then wrap them up in something. A plastic garbage bag is obvious but the bag itself is a problem. So, paper bags? Let’s cut down more trees.
(And I have no idea why such an incredibly trivial component in the plastic waste stream like straws got singled out. Disposable plastic bags are easy to see multiple problems with. But straws???)
Because plastic straws are entirely unnecessary (humans drank liquids for centuries without them) and they are a single-use product. (Usually wrapped in a paper sleeve, additional waste.) Plastic bags at least can be re-used multiple times.
News flash- drinks all taste better if one doesn’t drink then through a straw.
Except milkshakes.
If you are in the US or Europe, just throw it in the trash, and it’ll end up being buried in a landfill. There chance it’ll end up in the ocean is small enough that it’d be more productive to worry about other ways you may be harming wildlife & the environment.
Skeptoid had a good episode about it. From it:
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I think it’s because the way they’re used and the way they’re shaped makes them particularly susceptible to sliding down drains and winding up in the ocean. When I worked in restaurants, we would dump out drink glasses, which usually had some liquid, ice, and a straw, into a drain pan before putting the empty glass in a dish rack. The ice would melt, the water would drain, and the dishwashers (the people, not the machines) would periodically scoop out the straws and throw them away. But I could easily see a few of them slipping through the cracks.
What you say is true but the same thing is true of a massive number of other things, including take-out food containers and virtually 100% of consumer product packaging, so this does not explain why plastic straws are singled out.
Much of the wood used by paper companies in the U.S. comes from privately owned tree farms, where forests are planted, groomed and thinned for harvest in 20 to 35 year cycles, depending on the tree species. Its a renewable resource.
So then how does a straw make it through the “S” shaped trap. It’s not like they are flexible or short enough. Even for the crumpled ones, they would be getting caught by one of the many filters at the sewage plant. Very seldom in a western nation are sewage drains run straight into the ocean. Maybe a flood event that overwhelms the system or from a boat at sea. Otherwise I can not think of any.
Especially milkshakes. Drinking a milkshake through a straw gives you so little flavor that you might as well not drink it at all. And a really good milkshake will be too thick to go through a straw anyway.