The use of plastic is becoming a huge issue that takes part in everyday life. Everyone knows that plastic is bad for the environment and bad for humans and animals, but we still use it. There are countless videos and pictures of sea turtles with straws stuck in their noses or fish with plastic caught on their fin, but we continue to use plastic and kill the planet. Once plastic reaches the ocean, it cannot biodegrade and is often mistaken as food by marine life. Straws, unlike other plastics, cannot be recycled according to “The Death of the Plastic Straw,” since they are too lightweight to make it through mechanical recycling sorters and end up in landfills. Businesses such as hotels are the biggest offenders, “Hilton Waikola, Village which became the first resort on the island of Hawaii to eliminate plastic straws earlier this year, used more than 800,000 straws in 2017” (NG). Over one million seabirds and 100,000 animals of marine life are killed each year due to plastic in the oceans. Around 44% of seabirds and 22% of whales, dolphins, sea turtles, and other fish have been found with plastic in or attached to their bodies.
States around America, as well as a few other countries such as England and Belize, have begun to ban the use of single use plastic, including plastic straws. This is especially common with states that border the oceans or other bodies of water. While the United States has not made a ban yet and many states have not, some companies have taken the issue into their own hands. Many restaurants no longer provide straws at all, provide paper straws, or provide plastic straws only upon request. Many cruise lines and hotels have plastic straw bans as they are so close to the ocean. Think of how large some of these companies are, “While individual actions can have a significant impact on the environment and influence in the industry, a ban from a single hotel chain can remove millions of straws in a single year.”
Although straws seem so small in one’s life, they do create a large impact. You may not see straws as a necessary thing to have and to use, but some people need or prefer to use them due to a sensitivity to their teeth, gum disease, or disability. Because of this, there are alternatives to single use plastic straws. These include paper, compostable, bamboo, metal, silicone, reusable plastic, and many other types of straws.
Personally, I prefer to use a straw when drinking almost anything due to the sensitivity of my teeth as well as a habit. I never had given much thought to how bad plastic straws were for the environment until the restaurants that I go to stopped giving out straws. The waitresses or waiters at the restaurant always started out the conversation with an apology and explained that it was a new company policy or that they do not give plastic straws out unless requested as they are trying to help save the planet. Many forms of media have been talking about this issue more recently and many people have become advocates for this cause. These things tend to show pictures of how harmful the products can be to sea life, which is not something that is nice to look at. Doing things like these grab people’s attention, I know it has grabbed mine.
Works Cited
“#Art #Illustration #Artactivism #Byebyestraws #Stopsucking #Refuseplasticstraws #Saynotoplasticstraws #Sav…: Funny Animal Photos, Environmental Art, Save Our Earth.” Pinterest, www.pinterest.com/pin/368591550747905233/?lp=true.
Lev-Tov, Devorah. “The Death of the Plastic Straw.” Hotels and Tour Operators Are Eliminating Plastic Straws, 15 June 2018, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/features/plastic-straw-single-use-plastics-in-hotels-cruises/
