Straws are only the start

Efforts to eliminate plastic straws are counterproductive and potentially harmful

Catherine Silvey / Feature Editor / The USD Vista

The heartbreaking video of a crew of marine biologists removing a plastic straw from a sea turtle’s bloody nose exploded across the internet last year, leading California to ban plastic straws in January 2019, making them available only upon request. Even at USD, eateries including Tu Mercado and La Paloma have implemented straw-restriction policies, citing environmental concern and activism on cute little placards with cartoon turtles placed beside the cream and sugar.

We love to think of cute, happy little cartoon turtles, swimming in a sparkling blue ocean, carefree and void of suffering now that the straws are banned. And this is where the problem emerges—I know because I have experienced that rush too. I know that burst of satisfaction felt upon refusing an offered straw or enjoying a beverage without one. It’s a feeling of “mission accomplished.” It makes us believe that because we are doing something, we are doing the best we can, all we can. But this is untrue, and dangerously so.

While their shape and size makes them an extreme hazard to marine animals, straws do not actually make up that much of the plastic waste in our seas. A report by science writer Seth Borenstein states what while, if counted by piece, straws do make up about four percent of plastic pollution, their light weight and size means that they account for just 2000 tons of the almost nine million tons of plastic waste polluting the ocean on a yearly basis. Even if all straws were immediately eliminated, plastic pollution would remain devastatingly prevalent in the ecosystems of beloved marine animals.

The focus on eliminating straws as a cultural mission comes from the best of intentions. Nobody wants to see the ocean filled with plastic, and nobody wants to participate in the death of sea creatures. Identifying straws as a common enemy, especially with mammoth companies such as Starbucks participating, is the perfect social movement, but it is perfect because it is entirely effortless.

This is the primary reason behind the success of the anti-straw movement; if we are not given a straw and are capable of drinking our beverage without a straw, especially with the image of a bloodied sea turtle floating around in our consciousness, we are more likely to accept what we have been given and move on rather than go out of our way to obtain a straw. It is a perfect movement given the small, effortless sacrifice, but a problematic one in that it makes us feel we have accomplished something incredible when we have not actively accomplished anything at all. Passivism and reliance on better habits becoming cultural norms will not heal the world; active revision of our lifestyles, support of companies with eco-friendly practices, and relentless pressure on world leaders to prioritize mending our broken planet just might.

The straw revolution has absolutely done some good. It is a wonderful start, connecting the emotional distress of seeing a beloved animal in pain with a simple adjustment in our day-to-day lives. But that’s how we must see it – as a start. When we settle and accept the nice feeling of refusing a plastic straw as our full potential in saving the environment, we do more harm than good; we quell our anxiety about the dire physical state of our world and move on to worrying about something else. While being content with a strawless iced coffee from Starbucks may feel good, being content is what is putting the world we live in and the lifestyles we take for granted at stake.

To live without straws is good, but we can and must do better.