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A small, plastic straw – It’s something that comes with most beverages that we order, from soft drinks to even a glass of water.

Though at first this small straw may not seem like a lot, when its usage is added up, plastic straws create a big problem for the environment.

And, with the USA using 500 million straws every day (enough straws to circle around the Earth 2.5 times!), that’s a lot of trash and potential litter.

Updated Statistic: In the year of 2017, Americans used about 390 million plastic straws each day. This data comes from from the market research firm, Freedonia Group.

In this infographic and article below, learn about the impact of plastic straws on the environment, and how you can make a big difference just by rejecting the use of straws.

Environmental Impact Of Straws (Why Are Straws So Bad For The Environment?)

1. Plastic Straws can’t be easily Recycled

Straws are most commonly made from type 5 plastic, or polypropylene.

Although type 5 plastic can be recycled, it isn’t accepted by most curbside recycling programs. When plastic straws aren’t recycled, they end up in landfills, or even worse, polluting our oceans.

Make sure you check your local municipality website to see if plastic straws can be recycled in your area.

2. Plastics do not Biodegrade, and never fully Degrade

In order to understand the environmental impact of straws, it is important to know the difference between biodegrading and degrading:

Biodegrading is when an item can be naturally broken down and digested by micro-organisms, and then naturally recycled into new organic molecules and life.

On the other hand, degrading is just the process of breaking down into smaller pieces. When plastic degrades, the bulk of the plastic will seem to disappear – However, what’s really happening is the plastic is breaking into smaller, invisible pieces that will always still be on Earth.

With that being said, plastic straws take up to 200 years to degrade, but will never fully biodegrade. In other words, every piece of plastic ever created will remain on Earth.

To make matters worse, the degrading of plastic could release chemicals that are toxic to wildlife and the environment.

3. Straws are littered very often, and harm Ocean Wildlife

Whenever there is an ocean coastline cleanup, plastic straws never fail to make it on the list of one of the most found ocean litter.

And, as of early 2018, data from Ocean Conservancy’s TIDES system shows us that straws/stirrers are the 11th most found ocean trash in cleanups, making up about 3% of recovered trash.

Update: Straws are currently the 6th most found ocean trash in cleanups by quantity (July 2019).

All these straws and plastic polluting our oceans is having a negative impact on marine life. Take for example the video below, where researchers off the coast of Costa Rica remove a plastic straw that had been embedded in the nostril of an Olive ridley sea turtle.

It’s likely that the sea turtle accidentally swallowed the straw, and then had it stuck up its nostril while trying to cough the straw out.

Straws are also especially dangerous to seabirds, as they can be easily picked up and swallowed, suffocating and choking the bird. In fact, over 1 million seabirds die each year from ingesting plastic.

To make matters worse, if an animal eats too much plastic, it can starve to death. Once plastic is swallowed, it can’t be digested and it gets stuck in the stomach of the animal. Then, the animal (like a sea bird) isn’t able to eat real nutritious food, and it’ll eventually die of starvation.

In other words, plastic can fill up the stomach of a marine animal, preventing it from eating any actual food. The animal will then slowly starve to death.

The image below of a dead albatross chick shows just how much damage plastic can do to animals that ingest it:

Image By Chris Jordan (via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters) / CC BY 2.0

4. Straws Break Down into Microplastics

Remember how I mentioned that plastic straws don’t biodegrade, but instead, degrade into smaller pieces? Well, those smaller pieces of broken-up plastic are known as microplastics.



Microplastics are generally classified as any piece of plastic that is less than 5 millimetres in length.



Just as with any plastic, they can harm animals when mistaken for food. In fact, microplastics could be even more harmful than normal sized plastics, as they are smaller, and can easily be transferred through the food chain.



For example, if a small fish consumes microplastic, and then is eaten by a predator like a shark, the microplastic is transferred from the small fish to the predator, or the shark.



You can watch this video to learn more about microplastic and its environmental impact:

5. They collect in garbage patches in the ocean

A garbage patch is the name given to a congregation or concentration of marine debris in the ocean, which is mostly made up of plastic.



Depending on ocean currents, marine garbage collects in a variety of general regions in the ocean. For example, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of many collections of garbage within the Pacific Ocean.



When plastic straws are littered and enter the ocean, they can collect in large garbage patches. Microplastics or smaller pieces of plastic straws are also concentrated in patches by ocean currents.



Marine animals can tangled up in these large patches of plastic debris, and the large plastic patches can harm multiple animals in a region.



Take Action: Combat our Single-Use Plastics Problem

Plastic straws and other single-use plastics are a non-essential part of our life. Yet, they cause so much damage to the environment.

The simplest way to reduce plastic pollution is to reject the use of single-use plastics, like straws.

For example, the next time you go to a restaurant, make sure you request for your drink without a straw. Many restaurants serve straws with drinks even without a request, so make sure you ask for “no straw” before you order.

Another way to combat this problem is to use reusable straws. Reusable stainless steel or glass straws can be used, cleaned, and reused over and over again.

Related: 12 Best Plastic Straw Alternatives (My 2020 Recommendations)

This pack of 4 reusable straws by Leafico comes with two cleaning brushes and two waterproof stainless-steel cases (each case can hold two straws). They are dishwasher-safe, rust proof, and FDA approved.

The reason I recommend Leafico straws over other brands is because their product and packaging are completely plastic-free (they use cardboard packaging instead of plastic wrapping). The set that I showed above costs less than $20 and can be bought on Amazon.com.

Again, I’d like to remind you that the best option for the environment is to always use no straw at all. However, if you really feel the need to use a straw, then reusable straws are an option.

Get Green Now have partnered up with the One Less Straw campaign to bring you this article and raise awareness about the harmful outcomes of straws on the environment.

Take the One Less Straw pledge, and stop using single-use plastic straws for at least 30 days. You can learn more about OneLessStraw below.

About The OneLessStraw Campaign:

In Nov of 2016, One More Generation founders Olivia (14) and her brother Carter (16) launched their global OneLessStraw Pledge Campaign in an effort to help clean up our environment and educate people on the harms of using single use plastic straws.

Since the launch of the campaign we have had over 3,000 people from over 44 countries around the world sign our on-line pledge form stating that “they promise not to use a single use plastic straw for at least 30-days”.

We realized that reducing our plastic footprint could be very easy to do; we just need to say ‘NO’ to single-use plastics such as straws.

Sources:

OneLessStraw

1MillionWomen

OneGreenPlanet

Last Updated: 2019-07-30