When I buy a sugary drink, I don’t necessarily love the feeling of all that sugar hitting the front of my teeth. So, I’ll use a straw.
When my straw ends up tangled among other forms of plastic on a secluded beach somewhere, the sea turtle doesn’t necessarily love the feeling of being choked and prodded by what seems like the tiniest cylindrical tube.
It’s a simple analogy, and one we might not have to think about forever with some thought and preparedness.
With a little help from the city of Seattle and giant corporations like Starbucks, we might have to worry a bit more about sugar but a bit less about ocean life. I’ll take it.
But we should have taken the change a long time ago.
Seattle banned the use of plastic straws and utensils in late June. The city has become the first major metropolitan area to make this sort of change, according to The Seattle Times.
The nearly 5,000 restaurants in Seattle will now have to use reusable or compostable utensils and straws. However, the city is encouraging establishments to stay away from plastic altogether by switching to paper or using only reusable utensils.
It would seem the home of Starbucks made an impression on the coffee company. Nearly a week later, Starbucks announced it would end using single-use plastic straws by 2020.
Instead of the iconic green straws in each frappe, mocha and latte, a new lid will allow customers to drink without a straw. Yes, it looks like an adult sippy cup. But, it’s better than the alternative.
This is all a huge push for environmentalism, focused mainly on the Pacific Northwest. But, it’s not the only company making changes. Hyatt hotels, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and SeaWorld Entertainment are all moving away from the single-use pieces of plastic.
It’s a bit of a risk for the companies and Seattle to make such a big change, but it will be worth the adjustment.
Still, Seattle is just one city and those companies, although massive, are just companies. At this point in the environmentalist conversation, it’s going to sound cliche — but until 2020, we can each do more to help end the spread of single-use plastic. We should have been doing more all along.
Consumerism took over, and after a while, we forgot how even the smallest straw can make the largest of impacts. It’s the same as plastic water bottles and plastic grocery bags. We might be able to use them again, but the probability we will is low.
Skip the straw. Bring a reusable bag. Drink from glass. If you find other ways to lessen your impact, then share it with friends. Although it helps, we can’t rely on the next big change to come from a worldwide corporation alone.
Straws may be small, but eliminating them from our daily lives could lead to eliminating plastic water bottles, utensils, bags and the other items that might seem integral but really aren’t.
Making active life changes aren’t always simple. But, sometimes, skipping a straw is as simple as being OK with a little extra sugar on your teeth. Or next time, just go with water.
A single straw takes nearly 200 years to fully break down in our environment — let’s not take that long.
Hailey Stewart can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @Hailey_ann97