You may have seen the video of a sea turtle getting a plastic straw pulled out of its nose. It can be a very sad feeling to see an animal suffering like that because of the actions of human beings.

Plastic straws are terrible for the environment and can permanently damage the earth. The decomposition of the plastic in the natural environment will take hundreds of years. During that time, the plastic will continue to pollute the environment and hurt the health of every life on earth.

While it is true that most plastic products can be recycled, plastic straws cannot be. That is because they are too small. The machines that identify and sort the plastic cannot detect and process such small plastic items. So, the plastic straws are usually left in the normal garbage and will get buried or incinerated.

Like all the plastic pollution, the plastic straws will break down into microplastics and can be ingested by marine or land animals. Moreover, because of the way that the food-chain works, the microplastic will accumulate in higher level predators like human beings. We found that this article: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7558924/humans-polluted-plastic-particles/ mentioned that “The smallest microplastic particles are capable of entering the bloodstream, lymphatic system, and may even reach the liver.”

The plastic is affecting not only the life of fish but also our own health.
Moreover, because of the shape and the size of a plastic straw, it can cause more damage to our environment than other plastic products. The plastic straws are often eaten by animals such as turtles, seabirds, and fish, which causes the death of millions of seabirds, over 100,000 marine mammals, and countless numbers of fish every year.

So, not using plastic straws is a very important and helpful idea for everyone to follow. We found that Starbucks is going to take actions in this regard. This article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44774762 mentions they have announced that they will ban all the plastic straws in every Starbucks location in the U.S. by 2020. The City College of New York campus also bans plastic straws in the cafeteria.

As individuals, it is important for us to try our absolute best not to use any plastic straws. Remember that a plastic straw will only be used for 20 minutes yet it will take over 200 years to break down completely. Also, there are many alternatives like metal and paper straws. Right now, other types of straws only take up only 1% of the straw market with the other 99% of it is being taken up by plastic straws. Let’s work together to change this!