Did you know that 500 Million straws are used daily, just in the United States alone!?! That number would fill over 125 school busses with straws EVERY SINGLE DAY. 500 MILLION straws a day. That’s 175 billion a year. That’s enough straws to wrap around the Earth’s circumference 2.5 times a day. And those straws have to end up somewhere - landfills, our beautiful oceans….
So what can we do to help?
Image from Greenpeace.
Making a difference starts with ourselves, making right actions, you know, being the change and all. So let’s all take the pledge to #stopsucking!
Resources:
https://thelastplasticstraw.org/
https://www.strawlessocean.org/
http://ecocycle.org/bestrawfree
https://www.nps.gov/commercialservices/greenline_straw_free.htm
Complied, contributed and written by Katie Elliott.
Katie is an artist with a lust for travel and a profound love of nature. Her ideas of true happiness consist of: a great book, a blank notebook and pen, the beach, oil paints, a glass of good wine, yoga, soul friends and lots of laughing. Not necessarily in that order.
Connect with her on Instagram at @katieelliott108 or @dakinikate.
This is wonderful. I've felt this way for years, and whenever I go out to eat, I request no straw. Sometimes you get strange looks, which boggles my mind.
I'm also trying to bring my own containers from home when I go out to eat so that I don't use their take-out Styrofoam/other disposable containers.
Love this!! Thank you for posting this!
Welcome on board Adriene and all in the community,
Straws and plastic of all types are a big problem in our oceans. As a scuba diver and yoga person we see the problem here in Europe every day and every where, on the street, in the park, at the beach and in the sea. Your simple say no works and every little counts in our fight to save the oceans. .
Hi Marian
I agree. I have one question though. I would never buy plastic straws again, my issue is this; i have two boxes of plastic straws that i bought before I was aware of the issue. So, do I use them and then discard, never buying them again or what? This might sound odd, but it’s either that or they stay in my cupboard; which is fine, but ultimately eventually something needs to be done with them.
Any advice would be appreciated 😉
Yes! I went to a cafe today and just as I was about to ask for no straw, the barista popped a lovely glass straw into my tall glass of iced green tea :-), xx
This is something I’ve never even thought about before. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. -Love, a typical American
Thanks for spreading the word!!! I want to think that all this happens because people don´t know about the impact their daily actions have. Let´s share some love for ourselves and the planet we live on 🙂
I bring a metal straw with me everywhere I go.
Love saves the world!
Honestly, it's more about how we throw out our waste than just straws, not only should people be handling their waste more efficiently but our society at a fundamental level needs to change or at least accept responsibility for the world we live in. Enough on my crazy rant #nosuck is kinda funny I guess.
All single use plastic is very bad and unnecessary - thank you for posting the issue about straws. We all become blind to things that impact our planet - even little things turn into a mess when all humans use them this much. We are a "please no plastic" household where ever possible. i.e. no plastic bags, cutlery, wrap, containers except for 100% recycled. No party cups. - and No paper products. We use cloth napkins, real plates, and silverware. We will use old bread bags to put things in that normally we are told need a zip lock bag - I am telling you Bread bags are great. I have an old plastic wrap box that has not been used since 2011 when we committed to stopping. It isn't hard and Plastic is chocking our Oceans and killing our wild life. Every single piece of plastic that was ever made is still with us. It never biodegrades. Sorry for the long story - it is so important.
This is on my mind now after reading this a week or so ago. I cannot believe how many straws I've encountered just since then. I've been skipping them and sipping happier! Going to keep on going with it.
I was all for the no-straw thing, even our lawn tools are battery operated...lol. Until I had a medical condition that causes extremely sensitive teeth. Found out from a health unit worker, and confirmed from a restaurant worker (where they serve shakes with re-usable straws), that the reusable straws cannot be cleaned properly inside. Finally started keeping paper straws on-hand at home. Still judge myself, though
I have stainless steel ones at home and I got some paper ones to take on the go! NO MORE PLASTIC ones for me!
Powerful Message Adrienne! I came to #plasticfree and #zerowaste after going on a big journey of personal development - beginning with daily yoga that I still practice at the same studio coming up to six years later. By making time for myself on the mat I found out so much about myself.
Now, I'm really deeply connected with reusables and spreading the eco message!
Namaste
Bren
I am the Human Resources manager in SuperValu Westport Co Mayo in the west of Ireland. A wonderful community our store sponsors the Tidy Towns committee. In conjunction with ourselves, Tidy Towns and every bar, hotel and restaurant in the town have ceased the use of plastic straws. We are a coastal town and want to preserve the wildlife and nature in Westport, so getting rid of plastic straws helps us to do that, best wishes from our small town with a big heart❤️
I actually never really thought so much about the straws until I went to Bali and discovered that many places do actually offer reusable non-plastic straws. Made me reconsider things!
Love your videos....what are your favorite leggings? In particular 🙂 tie-die leggings on sore wrist video 🙂
Nice, great info, some of my friends carry straws around. probably better to just stop using them.
I love your videos, but I just want to point out that there are certain people with disabilities who need to use single-use plastic straws, and other straw alternatives are not as good or not usable at all. See the link below for more info, for example:
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/7/19/17587676/straws-plastic-ban-disability
I know your videos are disability-friendly, so clearly this is an oversight. Just wanted to make you aware!