Did Ditching Plastic Straws Do More Harm Than Good? | One Small Step

Raise your hand if you swapped your plastic straws for reusable metal ones 🙋‍♀️ These experts are sharing why the movement to ditch single-use straws might’ve actually done more harm than good.

In 2018, as straw bans passed across the country, searches for metal straws on Etsy went up 208% and reusable straw companies sold out. But did this movement really help?

PhD candidate and researcher Takunda Chitaka did her thesis on the environmental footprint of different kinds of straws. She found that metal straws were less likely to be littered and end up in the ocean, but because of the environmental impacts of mining, refining, and shipping, a metal straw would have to be used 37 times for its impact to be less than that of plastic straws.

Emy Kane is the senior director of digital at Lonely Whale, a nonprofit founded by actor Adrian Grenier that focuses on decreasing plastic pollution. Lonely Whale created the viral, celebrity-led #stopsucking campaign in 2017.

#Straw #EcoFriendly #StopSucking #Earth #Environment #Science #NowThis

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[isnaputriiskandar]

well i have used my metal straws more than 37 times and i'm using it almost everyday for abt 3 years now. so..

[ikaikatorres]

I have a bamboo straw. Guess you guys forgot about that one.

[maryannebrown]

I use my metal straw every single day, all day long, for about the last five years. I cannot even begin to calculate how many times I have used it, but I would say it has served me much better than plastic straws.

[altitudespeaks]

I love how every video on this topic blatantly avoid the fact that majority of the pollution in the ocean comes from the fishing industry

[AshesOfEther]

Here's something even better for the environment: Just skip the straw and drink directly from the glass, a container designed specifically to be drank from.

EDIT: Are you thinking of replying angrily that disabled people can't use straws? Don't waste your or my time, plenty of people have already misconstrued this comment to mean that literally everyone should stop using straws no matter their ability to drink without it, despite me at no point saying that.

[jeanneamato]

Most of the time we use a straw we could just drink it out of the container.

[ShenDoodles]

I was skeptical when I saw the title, but this is actually a really good point. I'll definitely be reconsidering my philosophy on different materials and their impact on the environment.

[aaaaa]

Im from the country where we don’t use straws to drink, but my husband uses our 5 metal straws we’ve got as a gift for two years now, so I think metal straws definitely help the environment if you have just a few of them of course, not a hundred

[tongsllc]

Why use straws at all? Focus on reusable travel tableware - eliminates fast food throw-aways!

[KP-jpgv]

Easy. Bamboo straws. Low impact, easy to grow, remains ridged, and does eventually biodegrade as wood does rot. Also, it is possible to recycle them too just as they recycle chopsticks.

Edit: I never understood why ppl use straws that often aside from Boba and thick drinks...

[sharonritchie]

I went through approximately 1000 disposable masks. Let’s focus on that.

[violaballs]

Should we be targeting plastic straws or plastic bottles created every minute by companies like Coke? I am pretty sure that is a bigger problem that has an obvious solution - going back to refillable glass bottles. Beers continue to be refillable, why not softdrinks?

[weiz]

I been using my metal straw for years now. Still look brand new

[jdawg]

We bought a 6 pack of metal straws for a family of 4 in 2018. We've gotten WAY more than 37 uses out of each one, and I don't foresee an end to the usefulness of these six straws.

[kristenkatz]

I personally have about the; metal straws and use them literally everyday at home and in my metal tumbler which comes with me pretty much every time I go out of the house. For me they’ve been awesome and having a small collection allows me to only have to go through and clean all of them once they’ve all been used. Been going on strong for 4 years now so I think I’ve well past usefulness and if they for some reason can’t be used anymore they’ll become part of a piece of artwork 🙂

[MrMrannoying]

This video makes some great points! After seeing this, I feel like eliminating straws altogether in some areas might be a great idea. Areas including fast food restaurants that sell their drinks with the Classic plastic Cap+Straw combo. It's totally possible to just remove the straw, and modify the cap in these areas to a sip cap. I've found a particular cap that allowed the drink to go down more smoothly than a straw at a Costco. I feel like getting rid of the straw, even in just some places, completely is a worthwhile movement

[jeffreym]

If we could have fast food places add an easy "no straw" option for ordering, I wonder if people would use their replacement straws more often.

[Deverouxe]

Likely nobody will see this but what I’m really interested about is whether going back to glass bottles like we did in the 1950’s would be better than plastic? Cause they were thicker and were reused, still are at CocaColas plant in Spain... Cause even with plastic that’s recycled it gets shipped often across the planet to be badly sorted then reused. Hence China basically banning waste plastic import

[marixlife]

Imagine your great grandchildren receiving your metal straws as an heirloom 😂

[fmiirlo]

Anyone else happy that people are more conscious about plastic, but is curious why people picked STRAWS to ban. That’s like boycotting toothpicks to protest trees being cut down.