ELi5: How did plastic straws specifically become targeted for eco-friendly banning, but similar disposables like plastic forks and spoons didn’t?
In: Culture
A couple of videos of sea creatures getting harmed by plastic straws went viral (e.g. there’s one of volunteers trying to pull out a plastic straw out of a sea turtle’s nose with pliers) and that got people so engaged that govs ended up taking action against straws.
The problem of course is that it’s very easy to ban straws, but also very ineffective as a eco-friendly measure, and arguably it’s actually harmful to society as a whole. Lemme explain.
Most people who use plastic straws now either use reusable straws made of metal or glass. Those are probably about as good for the environment as tote bags, i.e. not at all. I haven’t heard of any studies done on the efficiency of reusable straws, but in the case of tote bags, you’d actually have to reuse them literally thousands of times (which equates to multiple life times of usage) before they start being worth the upfront environmental cost. Cotton production requires a lot of energy (which mostly still comes from non-renewable sources) and tons of water, so disposable plastic bags actually end up being way better for the environment (as long as they don’t end up in the sea after being used). So unless you’re using reusable bags made from recycled plastic, you’re actually harming the environment by not using disposable ones.
Secondly, most people are able-bodied, so they probably can go without a straw, or even with a shitty “eco-friendly” disposable straw. But not all people can, and a lot of disabled people rely on disposable straws and their many advantages over their newer “eco-friendly” alternatives to quench their thirst. I’d suggest watching this video (https://youtu.be/3XGIxUXDWqw) about why alternative straws are inferior to disposable ones.
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