- Six million straws and stirrers are removed from beaches every year.
- By 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
- Metal straws are a great alternative to helping to stop the pollution from getting worse.
By now you've likely seen the viral Facebook posts sharing how sea turtles are being harmed by plastic. Or maybe the images of scuba divers attempting to swim through clouds of trash. It's neither an exaggeration nor something that will magically get better. There is a massive amount of plastic in the oceans, but there are ways to fix the issue. Something as simple as ditching plastic straws could just save the world, and there are simple ways to take personal action on the problem.
While plastic, in general, is an issue for sea creatures, it's straws that pose the biggest threat to our oceans. According to Strawless Ocean, over 500 million straws are used every day in the United States. Many straws end up being blown out of trash cans, left on beaches, or washing up into drains — all three of which will likely end in the oceans. According to the website, even the straws that are thrown into recycling bins will likely blow out or be too light to actually make it through the recycling process.
That's why people are urging you to quit using plastic straws.
"In the last 25 years, over six million straws and stirrers were removed from beaches annual cleaning events. Add this to the minefield of plastics that are swept away from ocean shores by wave action or other forms of water runoff, and you're looking at the destruction of planet earth's seas and sea life," said David Rhodes, global business manager for Aardvark Straws.
"We see more and more whales dying everyday because they are swallowing dozens of plastic bags and straws. This is a tragic event, but it can be avoided."
But it's not the straws on the beach that are the problem, it's the ones in the water. According to Popular Science, there are five massive patches of plastic around the world. One of them — the one between Hawaii and California — is as big as the size of Texas. Plastic straws are part of the problem. The plastic used to create the everyday item is typically a tough plastic that breaks into smaller pieces, but never actually goes away.
Straws get lodged into sea turtles' nostrils and can get swallowed by other marine life. They can also get mistaken for food by other underwater animals, which results in suffocation. There have also been cases of a penguin's stomach being perforated by a straw.
This problem is nothing new, but it's something that affects every generation — even those to come.
As The Revelator found, siblings Carter and Olivia Ries are 8 and 7-years-old and have already started the nonprofit One More Generation (OMG) to raise awareness about the plastic straw problem. They're working on educating people as well as brands as a whole on
"Our campaign is about the awareness," Carter told The Revelator. "We believe that education is the key to any problem anyone faces. You can't fix a problem you don't know about. When we give presentations, we don't tell the people what they need to do — we don't force people to change immediately. What we do is we educate them. We want to have a personal impact on every person so that they will resonate with the issue more."
There are other options.
It's not enough to simply vow to use fewer straws. You have to be aware of the problem and advocate for the cause. There are brands out there that are making it easier than ever to quit straws once and for all. Aardvark creates paper straws as an alternative to the ones hurting sea life. As the makers of the original paper straws, the brand found a way to create eco-friendly, compostable, marine degradable straw that is guaranteed not to wash up in the oceans.
Reusable straws are an even more effective option to stop the plastic pollution problem. The virtually zero-waste items are available as glass, metal, and stainless steel and can easily be taken with you to use on the go. There's even a kick-starter for an on-the-go, foldable straw called FinalStraw that comes with its own case and cleaner.
Or you can use the three magic words when you're at a restaurant or drive-through window — "no straw please." The sea creatures will thank you.
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