July 20, 2018
EDITORIAL – Picking on plastic straws
WEST SHORE VOICE NEWS EDITORIAL, by Mary P Brooke
McDonald’s recently announced it will be phasing out plastic straws by 2020, replacing with paper straws. Starbucks said it would eliminate single-use plastic straws at its 28,000 locations by 2020, being replaced by recyclable strawless lids and alternative material straws. These are just two responses to a global push to discourage the use of plastic straws and other one-time use plastics.
Why pick on straws, when there are so many single-use plastics out there: beverage lids, cutlery, dishware, bags, dental floss picks, etc (and whose to say some of these don’t get re-used)? Apparently straws contribute to about 150 million tonnes of plastic filling the oceans; by 2050 apparently there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Not sure how they end up in oceans so much … they’re also in landfills and many other places.
Banning plastic straws is an easy and relatively non-controversial place to start for almost anyone who wants to contribute to cleaning up the environment. Straws are something we can all easily identify with. Bendable straws and those of many colours are fun at parties, and helpful when angled for anyone who requires the straw to be positioned — say, when driving or even bed-ridden.
Straws are not easily cleaned properly, hence the single-use — it’s part of public health standards in the modern food industry. Over a century ago, when drinking tubes were first introduced as a way to give formula to infants there were cases of infection and even death due to unclean tubes. In decades past, drinking tubes of other materials haven’t held up too well (break or disintegrate). Probably even today most restaurants have probably appreciated the durability and cleanliness guarantee of plastic straws compared to paper.
Straws will endure in some form. As far back as 3,000 B.C. there was a gold drinking tube inlaid with blue precious stones (apparently found in a presumed Sumarian tomb — Google it!). It will be interesting to see what new forms of drinking tubes that modern industry comes up with as we trounce on plastic straws.
This article was first published on page 2 in the July 20, 2018 Cabinet Shuffle Issue of West Shore Voice News.
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