PLASTIC POLLUTION: THE LAST STRAW
CNN recently ran a story titled “Plastic straws are the subject of the latest 2020 culture war”.
The story was based on the 2020 US election presidential race in which prospective candidates discussed viable ways to tackle climate change.
In an interview, Senator Kamala Harris was quoted as saying the US should ban plastic straws, adding, however, that there needed to be more innovative ways around the current use of paper straws as they are flimsy and often break easily.
In another report on Fox News, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg maintained that anyone who eats a burger and uses a plastic straw should consider themselves part of the climate change problem.
Some social media users have criticised the debate on straws, saying it dumbs down more pressing issues such as how to really reduce carbon emissions and what action to institute against companies that don’t comply.
In South Africa, some eateries and restaurants have already swopped plastic straws for paper straws. It’s also no secret that some people, like myself, are against paper straws. I’ve found myself on several occasions completely frustrated at seeing my straw sag into my orange juice.
Am I against efforts to find solutions around climate change by disliking paper straws? Absolutely not. What matters is that as part of my contribution to acting against climate change, I’ve stopped using straws altogether, paper or plastic.
In fact, considering that by 2050 it’s said that all sea birds and other sea creatures would have ingested plastic, The Collegian, Dakota University’s student-run paper, is correct in saying that we now need to “think bigger” or beyond paper straws in order to be sustainable.
Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals calls for countries to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by the year 2030.
Last month, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis noted that to achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “deep transformation” is urgently needed.
The Institute proposed six transformations it said have “an integrated and holistic framework for action that reduces the complexity, yet encompasses the 17 SDGs and their 169 targets”.
Among these are the need to transform how we establish our education system, the mechanisms we put in place to ensure gender equality as required by SDG 5, as well as how we protect our water resources, our oceans and sustainable cities, along with thriving green economies.
For South Africans, to tackle climate change one plastic at a time means we need to improve on how we educate and raise awareness around the use of plastic and other products harmful to nature. For instance, in 2004 the government introduced a plastic bag levy which has over time seen consumers purchasing plastic bags for eight to 12 cents.
This initiative has played an important role, but we need to ask ourselves how we can go from 2.9 billion plastic bags being sold in 2016/17 to none being sold.
Perhaps this is a pipe dream, but the greater objective is that we need to ask ourselves: What compels us to purchase our groceries in plastic bags rather than biodegradable bags?
If the only immediate answer is affordability, we need to look at ways we can produce affordable bags for consumers over the next 11 years to meet SDG targets.
We also need to remember as a society that laws and austerity measures can only get to a certain level. We on our own need to be champions of saving our immediate environments from further decay.