The High Cost Of Plastic Straws In The Ocean

My friend Beth, who also picks up beach trash, pet peeve is straws. I also do not understand the obsession that we have to have a straw to drink. In fact this small little item is so unnecessary in life and the ingestion of drink, that I am appalled at how it has become a ‘must have’ in a life of useless plastic devices.

Go to a restaurant and they serve you a straw. This item is used 1 time! and yet, in a half mile stretch of the beach and parking lots, it is very easy to pick up over 50 straws of all colors, sizes and shapes.

Straws are littered on beaches.. wafting out to sea

They are in trash cans waiting for Sea Gulls. This bubble lid has led to bigger trend in straw use.

One of the worst: Disposable drink packages from Kool-Aid and Capri are horrendous. Not only does the yellow straw get littered and the clear plastic that attaches it to the drink package. Hate these! This is an easy 20-50 of these a day on the beach in the summer.

I Just Got To Eco You

• 500 Million Straws are used daily in the USA.
• 35,00o Straws Americans used in a lifetime.
• Top 10 pieces of plastic found on the beach are straws
• Plastic straws are photodegradable, meaning they break down into small pieces.. just like marine animals like to eat.
• 15,000 Plastic Straws were picked up in San Diego in 2017 Beach Clean
• Cities who prohibits servers from giving out single-use straws unless a customer asks for one.
• 2012 Miami Beach banned plastic straws on the beach
• 2017 Encinitas, California is considering a plastic straw ban.
• 2017 Huntington Beach, California, could be the first city to ban plastic straws in California
• 2017 Davis, California new law says you have to request a straw.
• 2017 San Luis Obispo, California enacts plastic straw restrictions.
• 2017 Berkeley, California is considering plastic straw restrictions.
• 2017 Manhattan Beach, California banned not just straws.
• 2017 Monterey, California went ‘strawless’ in November 2017 to combat plastic waste.
• 2017 Chicago Restaurants Ditched straws for #shedthestraw campaign.
• 2018 Seattle plastic straw regulation to start.
• 2018; London City Airport in the UK, banned plastic straws
• 2018 Wetherspoons a 900 store chain will replace plastic straws with paper. That would save 70 Million plastic straws per year.
• 21c Museum Hotels is planning to reduce waste by cutting out 735,000 straws a year. 
• 2018 Queen Bans Plastic Straws and Bottles 

This is the video that went viral. A plastic straw was removed from a Turtles nostril.

That said, just say no to plastic straws, you don’t need them and the long term cost of a single use plastic straw is something that is so horrifying to think about.

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