LAST STRAW T H E
‘People might be wondering what all the fuss is about when it comes to what kind of straw should be used. Although straws are essential, banning the use of single-use plastic straw among everyday users can be considered as the easiest way to address the a
Three years ago, American marine biologist Christine Figgener took a video of her team while they were removing a plastic straw stuck in the nose of a sea turtle. The video was so heartbreaking and so powerful that it was shared and viewed on social media 31 million times.
The message of the video was clear – straws, despite its size and its seemingly harmless nature, could pose a real danger not only to marine animals but to the environment in general. In fact, according to a World Wild Life Report, Americans, one of the largest consumers of plastic straws in the world, consumes an average of 1.6 million straws daily!
Single-use straws are 11th in the most found trash in the ocean and it could take about 200 years before these straws decompose. What’s worse is that single-use straws don’t always get recycled and most countries often have no provisions for recycling this material.
In the Philippines, plastic straws have a devastating effect on our environment. In a statement released by Greenpeace last August, the country ranked third in the world’s worst plastic polluter of oceans, a close contender after Indonesia (second) and China, which ranked as the top offender.
The statement came in the heels of a beach clean-up held along the Manila Bay, wherein roughly 54,000 pieces of plastics were gathered – a combination of sachets, plastic bags, and of course, straws.
During a waste audit, the Philippines was found to be a contributor of one of the world’s largest garbage patch found in the ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which has approximately 79,000 tons of plastic. The patch is so big that it is said to be twice the size of France.
Since the movement calling for the ban of straws started three years ago, scientists have actually been trying to explain how it could directly affect the environment. For one, plastic straws are just too lightweight to make it through recycling bins or even garbage cans for that matter.
According to a study conducted by the international group Strawless Ocean, the majority of plastic straws do end-up in the ocean because most are left in gutters which primarily lead to bodies of water, get left behind in beaches and coastal areas, or blown away from garbage vehicles because they are basically weightless.
What’s alarming is that these plastic straws don’t remain in its original form – the majority do not disintegrate but get transformed into particles called microplastics.
In a research done by scientists at the UGA New Materials Institute, it was discovered that microplastic By Illustration by
• Edible straws. All over the world, various restaurants and coffeeshops have come up with creative ways to serve straw. An Italian restaurant is serving straw made from pasta which can be chewed after lunch. Another restaurant in China is serving straws made from rice which can also be eaten.
• Reusable bottle with straw. This allows you to bring your own beverage and use it with a reusable straw.
• No straw at all. Most of the time straws are actually unnecessary and people can actually survive and enjoy a drink even without it. particles that are smaller than dust have already been ingested by baby sea turtles, poisoning them. Not only that, these microplastics have been ingested by numerous sea bird species, can be found in salt used for cooking, and even in shellfishes. Going back to Figgener’s video, it served as a catalyst worldwide to lobby for immediate action against plastic pollution. It helped big corporations like Starbucks and American Airlines to ban single-use straws. In the Philippines, a law calling for the total ban of single-use plastics and stirrers is already being lobbied in the Senate under Senate Bill No. 1866 authored by Sen. Risa Hontiveros. The law is geared towards banning establishments from using single-use plastic straws and stirrers. This includes straws used in sari-sari stores.
To date, most cities in Metro Manila have banned single-use plastics, although most are focusing on plastic and styrofoam as packaging and do not directly address the use of straws.
There are also notable brands in the Philippines that are directly addressing the problem of plastic straws. Sip, for example, introduced an ingenious way of addressing plastic pollution by introducing metal straws. Metal straws are considered to be very environment-friendly because these are durable and can be reused over and over again – think how you use your utensils. Apart from this, metal straws do not leach Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that can be dangerous to one’s health, into drinks. And once the straws are no longer in use, they can easily be recycled since steel is the most recycled mineral on earth.
Sip metal straws are made of 18/8 food-grade stainless steel. This means that it is created in the standard that is completely safe for use by kids and adults alike. 18/8 stands for 18 percent chromium and eight percent nickel which give it its shiny and rust-proof properties. Bambuhay on the other hand, promotes straws made of the abundant kawayan or bamboo. Hamsa also offers variations of the bamboo straw and are proven great for the environment because they are 100 percent biodegradable. At the end of the day, people might be wondering what all the fuss is about when it comes to what kind of straw should be used. Although straws are essential especially for individuals with specific conditions like autism or those who suffered from stroke, banning the use of single-use plastic straw among everyday individuals can be considered as the easiest and perhaps the simplest way to address the alarming problem of plastic pollution.
Is it time for us to use the last straws? Let it be not on the time when our planet is already at its last straw.