I haven’t seen any good examples that they are a big problem. There’s that one turtle, but come on. Turtles are the goats of the ocean. The plastic retainer on 6 packs seem actually designed to snare things, but a straw? And restaurants and bars in the US seem to be taking the lead yet we are a very small contributor of plastic waste. Only about 1% of waste plastic in the environment comes from the US since we have a fairly robust collection and recycling system.
At any rate, despite many posts I have read about how dreadful the paper alternatives are, I still have not encountered a paper straw. And we eat of a lot.
As for the “why”, they’re just another form of plastic pollution (you know that already, but this article has details). They’re not quite as lethal as six pack rings, but they do fly away easily, decompose into microplastics, etc. It’s also not quite fair to say that “only 1% of the waste is from the US anyway” since we also export a lot of our waste to poorer countries with laxer regulations. That exported waste is the product of American consumerism but doesn’t always get counted as American waste once it’s exported. While big countries like China may produce more overall volume, I think per capita, Americans produce a disproportionate amount of garbage. It’s been a while since I really looked into the numbers, but I can try to dig up some stats if you really want them.
Personally, I don’t think the hubbub focusing on straws in particular really makes much sense either (they don’t strike me as a particularly sinister evil, just one of many pollution-related issues, which is also just one of many environmental issues). But various environmental interest groups have taken it upon themselves to champion that cause, alongside single-use plastic bags, and actually to some success. It may just be a case of going after the low-hanging fruit rather than, say, trying to single-handedly stop climate change.
Whether you personally experience plastic straw bans (and the resulting paper/bamboo/biofilm straws or sometimes just sippy lids) is largely a regionalism. Out here in the West, especially in more liberal cities in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Portland, sometimes San Francisco) it’s a very common thing to see. Out in the Midwest and elsewhere, probably not so much.
As to straws and plastic grocery bags specifically v. plastic in general …
Those are both products for which highly suitable substitutes exist. Where the harm is more proportional to total number than total weight due to the discards floating in the ocean looking especially like favored food sources for various animals. And are products which get used by people in great numbers.
IOW, they’re the low-hanging fruit of US near-shore trash pollution.
I don’t know how accurate this is, but the version I was told was that the initial campaign for banning plastic straws came from a few specific areas where they were legitimately a big problem- a couple of tourist towns in Cornwall, in England. Cornwall is known for both surf beaches and cliffs and many areas have cliff-top restaurants with outdoor tables overlooking beaches. It’s also the windiest county in England. Straw holders on the tables would blow over in strong winds and people often left used straws on the table or in their drinks, where they caught the wind or just rolled off. A bunch of local surfers in spots where this was especially common got really annoyed about this as they were constantly finding plastic straws everywhere in the water, so they started a campaign to try and ban local restaurants from giving them out, which then spread to nearby areas with a similar issue.
Plastic pollution was becoming more widely discussed as an issue at the time, and it more or less grew from there. A couple of pictures of straws damaging sea life later, a BBC wildlife documentary highlighting straws specifically as a problem, and straws just became the poster child of plastic pollution in the seas.
I agree with this. Philadelphia banned plastic grocery bags a few years ago. It was relatively easy to switch to re usable bags. The same is true of plastic straws. Getting rid of them and switching to paper is easy. These are little steps in the right direction so we can make big changes in the future.
Unfortunately, there’s also some evidence that letting people take the small steps makes them feel like they’ve done their share, and they don’t bother with the big changes anymore: single-action bias, like in this study (emphasis added):
One potential obstacle to pro-active action [towards climate change] is the phenomenon of “single action bias” (SAB). SAB refers to the tendency of people to focus on and take action on a single problem or issue while disregarding the potential impact of other related problems or issues (Weber, 2020). Within the context of climate change, SAB may lead individuals to focus on isolated actions like energy conservation or recycling, overlooking the necessity for comprehensive systemic changes (Zhao and Luo, 2021).
My feelings echo those of the two respected posters above.
And while this is likely true, we’re also at the point that the perfect is the enemy of the good. A lot of those people will likely NEVER make the big sacrifices for big changes at all. Getting the low hanging fruit is better than doing nothing. It’s not a perfect answer, but well, very little touching on humans is.
Sure. And there’s plenty of other effects at work, too, like sometimes the smaller actions make them change their attitude enough that even if they don’t do anything else, they become more pro-environmental in their voting, etc. Or they might donate more to a nonprofit. Whatever. Nothing with humans is simple
It’s just an interesting thing to note, though, especially if you’re an environmental nonprofit/thinktank/PAC or a policymaker.
Just pointing out that while we may have a robust collection system, most of that plastic is not recycled, and ends up in our landfills or exported in-bulk to other countries for them to deal with (some have stopped accepting it: Indonesia and China). There simply is no market for recycled plastic the same as there is for aluminum or glass. It’s all part of the plastic industry’s “feel good” campaign to make people think they are recycling, but in fact it’s just waste, so they can continue to ramp-up plastic production. IMHO any effort and any win, no matter how small, in curbing the use of single-use plastic, is a small victory - if plastic straws go away, that will be one more win.
That could well be but the vast majority of plastic pollution is from the Philippines and I don’t think we send any waste there. I saw the same problem in Thailand when we went there. They don’t use carryout cups, they use small plastic bags. Dump a scoop of ice in the bag, pour in the drink and stick a straw in and wrap a rubber band around it. I thought it was genius at first but when they are done they just get dropped. They are blowing everywhere. So you have a straw, a bag and a rubber band in a package that can blow away easily.
Single-use plastic items such as straws—as well as stirrers, bags, and cups—are convenient, but convenience can come at an environmental cost if they aren’t disposed of properly or recycled. Many marine animals mistake these and other plastic items for food. Plastic has been found in an estimated 90% of all seabirds and in all sea turtle species. Within the next decade there could be a pound of plastic for every three pounds of fish in the ocean.
Those two statements are completely unrelated. Nobody’s cutting down old-growth forests to make paper. The sorts of trees that are used to make paper take about two years to grow to their full size, and are then harvested and re-planted. It’s just another crop, like wheat or corn. In fact, fast-growing scrub trees like that are a good method of carbon sequestration.
The thing about straws is that most people find no need for them in their own dining room; which indicates to me that there is little need for them elsewhere. I’ll grant you milkshakes and smoothies, but everything else can be consumed without a straw. If spillage is any concern, just use a coffee lid instead of one with a straw hole.
I like how Asian countries are recycling disposable chopsticks. They use millions each day. Factories wash them and cut them to length and then press them together with glue to make boards.They are used to make furniture and other things. Here is a short video although it is from Canada. Nice process, 51st State!
There are a lot of people who use straws regularly such as me. I have sensitive teeth so I use them with everything - even coffee at home. I have purchased a travel metal straw w/case and have metal straws in all sizes at work and home.
I was recently in Ireland and in one of the cities (I think it was Killarney) they have banned single use coffee cups. I usually travel with my own cup and straw for using in the hotel for breakfast but I do not generally carry it around with me during the day. That may have to be a future consideration for travel lol.
Any paper company worth its salt knows this.
Replanting for their own use is simply not sustainable.
I know about the super pines. They themselves contribute to loss of forest areas for naturally seeded trees. Of course these areas are planted, cut, planted and cut til there are no nutrients left in the soil.
Not to mention the diseases they spread to old growth forests. At their detriment.
I work with six employees who pick up trash. The straws left strewn usually are shredded from being run over but also seemingly from normal sunlight. They are of course not as common as other items like cigarettes, bottles etc.
