Ditch Your Straw, Save the Turtles!
Ditch Your Straw, Save the Turtles!
 |
| © Kathryn Brooks: Baby Sea Turtles |
mostly regarding straws and sea turtles. I find it amazing that Instagram and Facebook are being used to inform the masses that straws are detrimental to the health of sea turtles, but little information is being put out there in regards to why straws are so harmful, and what we can do to eliminate plastic waste.
Why Straws?
At first, I wondered why attention was being brought to straws in particular, but after conducting a very small amount of research, the answer soon became apparent. Straws have, for the longest time, taken a place on the top 10 list of most commonly collected marine debris. Plastic, what these straws are typically made of, cannot be broken down by water. As time passes, the plastic breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, but since plastic is not biodegradable, it will never decompose.According to the National Parks Service, Americans, alone, use roughly 500 million straws every single day, or 182.5 billion straws a year. If you attached 500 million straws end to end, you could wrap them around the earth roughly 2.5 times. We can in no way justify the disposal of that many straws, especially when it leads to these plastic tubes being dumped into our oceans by the hundreds of thousands.
 |
| Straws are only used for 10-20 minutes. An almost insulting usage time for an item that will then have the potential to end up lodged in the airway of a sea turtle. |
What Action is Being Taken
American cities in areas near the coasts, where marine debris is more obvious, have passed, or are in the process of passing, bans and resolutions on the plastic straw matter. For example, Seattle will be enacting a ban this month that will require businesses that sell food and drink to offer recyclable straws and utensils. However, even without the ban, 200 retailers had agreed to make the switch due to the "Strawless in Seattle" campaign.
And Seattle's ban is only the beginning. Starbucks has announced their plan to altogether get rid of plastic straws by the year 2020, in favor of compostable straws. With nearly 30,000 Starbucks stores all around the world, it is safe to assume that the many other coffee shops will follow suit and begin to use compostable straws as well.
How You Can Take Action
While simply informing your waiter/waitress that you would not like a straw while you are out to eat is a wonderful place to start, there are other simple things you can do to live out an environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Resources/Additional Reading:
Food Storage
Instead of using Ziploc baggies or plastic shrinkwrap, consider purchasing reusable glass Tupperware. Not only would this eliminate potential plastic waste, it also would be a more frugal alternative, seeing as you will not have to continually purchase new Ziploc baggies.
Additionally, if you did not eat your entire meal while you're out at a restaurant, instead of opting to use styrofoam or plastic food containers, bring your own glass tupperware and use this as a substitute. As awkward, or as inconvenient, as this might be, healthier waterways are worth a few seconds of minor embarassment.
Hygiene
Many people use disposable, plastic razors that are thrown away and replaced monthly, or even weekly. Alternatively, more high end razors that can be used long term, or razors that have replaceable blades would be preferable.
Shopping Bags
Billions of plastic bags are used every year, all around the world. While in most cases these plastic bags are free to shoppers, it only costs a few dollars to purchase reusable bags, preventing further damage to waterways and ecosystems.
Liquid Containers
Stop buying bottled water. Instead, invest in a reusable water bottle that can be refilled. This is one of the easiest ways to reduce plastic waste.
Also, if you purchase coffee from cafes instead of making your own coffee at home, buy a thermos. Most cafes would be happy to fill up your thermos instead of using one of their coffee cups (this is also a great way to keep your hot beverage warm for longer).
 |
| If you want to save money and don't wish to purchase both a water bottle and a thermos, consider bottles such as the Hydro Flask, which can keep beverages both very cold or very hot for long periods of time. |
Resources/Additional Reading:
- https://www.treehugger.com/green-home/11-easy-ways-reduce-your-plastic-waste-today.html
- https://www.sailorsforthesea.org/programs/ocean-watch/skip-straw-%E2%80%93-save-turtle
- https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/straws-why-they-seriously-suck/
- https://www.nps.gov/articles/straw-free.htm
- https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/the-last-straw-seattle-will-say-goodbye-to-plastic-straws-utensils-with-upcoming-ban/
- https://www.eater.com/2018/7/12/17555880/plastic-straws-environment-pollution-banned-alternatives-ocean-sea-turtle-viral-video
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/266465/number-of-starbucks-stores-worldwide/
I love how you took a seriously underrated, but still important, issue in the world and made it so that the solution to saving turtles and bettering the environment in general so easy. And it is that easy. Like you said, a few small changes in our lifestyle could completely change our environment in ways like lowering the Ph levels in the water or clearing waterways that used to be filled with small plastic objects.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you; the plastic straw ban is seriously overrated.
DeleteWhile many west coast cities continue in the crusade against the great evil that is plastic straws, actual facts have begun to leak into the news. For instance: straws account for just 0.03 percent of ALL plastic in the 8.3 million metric tons of plastic waste in the ocean.
(https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-07/plastic-straws-aren-t-the-problem)
Equally hilariously overrated is the widely circulated figure accepted as fact that Americans use 500 million plastic straws daily. I was skeptical of this statement the moment I first saw it, considering about only 300 million American citizens exist. Turns out, this figure was pulled from a survey conducted by a nine year old: (https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/california-bill-would-criminalize-restau)
Obviously, we need to take care of our waters. Yet shouldn't local government target something actually extremely harmful to oceans?
For example, unused, dumped fishing nets actually do harm our waters a great deal: (https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a19574763/garbage-patch-fishing/). Fishing gear for other wildlife makes up much of the remaining waste.
I don't want to ban fishing gear; that would be absurd. Getting rid of straws was bad enough. However, I do think dumping fishing nets once finished with them should be punishable via fine. We shouldn't really ban products at all in "the land of the free".
The kind of attitude that you display in this comment is exactly what restricts progress in modern-day America. Just because eliminating plastic straws doesn’t completely solve the issue of plastic pollution in our oceans, you believe that it’s unworthy of time and effort. Progress is still progress, no matter how miniscule it is, and at the end of the day, progress isn’t guaranteed. It is up to us to go out there and ensure that it is made. And that is precisely why I find the way you use the phrase ‘overrated’ to be deeply repulsive. 8 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans every year, and plastic straws are 0.03% of that number. That may sound like a small amount, but that is still 240 thousand metric tons of plastic that we, not as politicians, but as private citizens, can prevent from entering our ecosystems. In what way is that ‘overrated’?
DeleteIf you find fishing nets to be a large issue to our ecosystem, great, I do too. Write an article about it. Raise awareness. Protesting in the comment section of my article isn’t the most productive way to bring attention to this matter. I get it. Both pollutants are problems, but why can’t they coexist? Just because I chose to cover this specific pollutant in my article, doesn’t mean that I don’t find fishing gear to be dangerous to our ecosystems as well. However, not everyone is a fishmen, and not everyone has the opportunity to prevent nets and gear from being thrown into our waters. I focused on straws because of how easy it is for every day people to eliminate a form of plastic that is being sent out into the oceans by the hundreds of thousands every year.
I think you're missing the point. The actual BAN on a product simply because West Coast city politicians want to focus on 0.03% of plastic versus about half of the actual waste in the ocean is what needs to be focused on. United States citizens removing straws from homes simply because people in our local legislative branch say to won't have as big of an impact as actually petitioning or raising awareness about that bigger number (1,667.67 times bigger, in fact).
DeleteThe way I see it, we can't control what the local government in Seattle, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco do. So why worry about the overhyped "impending doom of straws that will destroy our oceans" when we have a bigger problem of fishing nets in the Great Lakes?
Think about it this way–There is no chance we will get straws banned in Michigan in any city. If you want to use a reusable straw, go for it, that's your right. Yet I should not have my straws banned because the government wants to ban them (I never use straws btw). You focused on straws because: "it is easy for every-day people to eliminate a form of plastic". I agree with you. It is pretty easy. I am not condemning you in any way, shape, or form for writing this. But the point is we have bigger "fish to fry" in the form of fishing nets. Also I never said you don't care: "Just because I chose to cover this specific pollutant in my article, doesn’t mean that I don’t find fishing gear to be dangerous to our ecosystems as well". I also don't feel like I'm protesting anything in the comments section. I don't think I'm restricting progress (that's targeting straws instead of something much more harmful), and I don't think that this is unworthy of our time and effort. I think it's unworthy of our politicians' time and effort. However, I do think I just got strawmanned.
Andy, you are the one missing the point. Which is why I'm starting to believe you didn't even read my article. Maybe you just read the title and hopped down to the comment section. At this time I invite you to scroll back up to the beginning, and read my article start to finish. Once you have completed that task, I think you'll find that I address the recent straw ban phenomenon and provide certain statistics surrounding it, and supply what is being done to prevent this specific form of plastic waste in many west coast cities. But then, if you keep reading, I use this well known current event as a transition to bring some light to the fact that straws aren't the only form of pollution that we have to worry about, and that there are way more forms of plastic waste that are polluting are oceans! I think this displays that I comprehend that straws aren't the biggest issue.
DeleteAnd if you read my original response comment, I state that "The kind of attitude that you display in this comment is exactly what restricts progress in modern-day America". I only observe that the vibe I received from your comment parallels that kind of attitude, I never say that you are restricting progress. That would be outrageous. In what universe would you possibly affect progress in anyway shape or form from the comment section of my article.
Also, to address the statement: "But the point is we have bigger "fish to fry" in the form of fishing nets". I got that point from your first comment! As a competent human being, I understand the statistics and fully comprehend that fishing gear is a larger issue. However, for my current events article, I chose to focus on straws, and then furthermore on other forms of plastic pollution. I hope we can simply agree to the fact that I fully grasp all the points that you make about fishing gear and the points you made on straw bans, that I disagree with a majority of them, and just leave it at that :)
Hope you have a nice day!
I am really late to this conversation, but Andy, I think you make a really good point. I still stand by my comment but your view of this conversation is really enlightening. I agree with the fact that focusing on straws to reduce plastic waste is an impractical use of time, in which time focus could be given to fishing nets. But the point of this article was the fact the effect that plastic has on the environment is directly affecting turtles.
DeleteYour argument is still valid and true and was constructed very well, but my comment was only proven true because even if you had the power to make executive decisions about reducing small plastic waste, you wouldn't have. You would've overlooked straws and focused on the bigger picture, which, although would have a more drastic impact on the overall environment, it would not have helped turtles in areas close to big cities, therefore making my comment that this is an underrated topic true. And if you can overlook the damage that straws have on the environment, however small, so can other people.
Yes, I understand that there is already a ban in place in many coastline cities, but if it were working in the way it were supposed to, this conversation wouldn't be such a big deal. I also completely agree with you in your stance on focusing on fishing nets, but that is not what this is article about. I also understand that I'm being petty and slightly unreasonable, but that's me.
This is very interesting topic. I've heard of this before, but never in so much detail. I believe that some countries in Europe use paper straws instead of plastic so that the straws are biodegradable. That would also be a really easy change that companies could do without getting rid of straws entirely. I don't know why they couldn't do something like that in America.
ReplyDeleteI wrote an article on this same topic, and once I realized that you had too, I was very excited to read another persons interpretation on this issue in current events. I love how you took a more personable approach, informing the reader what they individually can do to decrease their amount f waste from single-use plastic. Overall, great job on a very important topic.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked to learn Starbucks have already starting implementing new packaging. Right now if you go to Starbucks you can ask for a nitro lid instead of a straw with your drink. I was very happy to hear that this problem has been addressed so quickly by so many companies. Where I work some people have to use straws to be able to eat and drink, and I hope they can implement more eco-friendly options there too soon. I've also heard that the cardboard straws break down easily but are being redesigned.
ReplyDeleteHearing about some of the negative effects that humans have on the environment can be kind of startling, such as the negative impact of drinking straws on sealife. Drinking straws are something that many people see quite often, but many forget that they are there. However, the pictures in your blog seem to show that those drinking straws still have a massive impact on the environment. I also appreciate how you managed to tie in other ways to help the environment into your post, such as water bottles and reusable shopping bags.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article and the comments section I think it is super important to adress this topic and I actually didnt know about those stats or much about the topic at all. I think andy has a fair point that there are many bigger issues on this topic however, It is great to start small and get it going and as this grows you can move to bigger issues. I loved this article it wa very informational and I am now not going to use straws as much as I can.
ReplyDelete