Drinking straws are extremely unnecessary. The only place where drinking straws are needed are in hospitals, where patients who can’t take in large amounts of liquids and are forced to use them. The vast production of straws for restaurants and bars is pathetic. It’s time for people to become conscious of the irreversible damages they make in the environment.
According to Eco-Cycle, an organization which focuses on building zero waste communities, 500 million straws are used in the United States daily. When I first read this statistic, I thought of the times I contributed to this data, and how many of those times I didn’t need a drinking straw.
Even though my contribution to the statistic made me angry, it also educated me on this issue. For instance, I don’t understand why restaurants still use these tubular plastic things when drinks come in cups, cans and bottles. It is estimated that a restaurant throws away thousands and thousands of straws each year.
I wouldn’t be so mad at straws if they broke down into carbon dioxide, water or simple organic molecules, but they don’t. Plastic straws are not biodegradable, which means that they remain as waste on earth forever. This generates toxicity and pollution, an increasing threat to climate change.
To make things worse, it is estimated that most birds, whales, dolphins and some turtle species have ingested plastic—this includes straws. Drinking straws are also dangerous because of the negative impacts they have on our air.
We have to change this. As students, we should be aware of this threat and do something about it to save animals and ourselves. If you are obsessed with drinking from straws, you need to switch to reusable straws made of glass, stainless steel or bamboo. If you go to a restaurant and they offer you a straw, just say no.
We have to stop thinking that one straw is not a big deal, because it only takes one straw for their demand to keep increasing. We have the power to make future generations forget about plastic straws and help the environment. So, if you ever bump into someone that offers you a plastic straw, remember to repeat the words that The Last Plastic Straw organization promotes: no straw, please.
