the last straw

› By Nick Steele

Each day, Americans use about 500 million straws, according to the National Park Service. In a year, we use enough to wrap around Earth two and a half times. And many experts believe these figures are actually low, as they don’t include straws attached to juice boxes and milk cartons.

All over the world, communities, businesses and brands have taken action to put an end to straws in restaurants, theme parks, hotels and other like-minded businesses. In the United States alone, cities like Seattle, Washington; Fort Myers Beach, Miami Beach and St. Pete Beach, Florida; as well as Malibu, Davis and San Luis Obispo,

California, have paved the way. Each banning or limiting the use of plastic straws in restaurants, which is encouraging others to take similar action. As a matter of fact, in early July, Starbucks announced it will phase out plastic straws from all its stores by 2020.

SeaWorld, the theme park giant, also recently banned all plastic straws, bags and lids from their parks.

“For a company that says, ‘We’re about the environment and that’s what we do day in and day out,’ this is a very simple answer,” shared SeaWorld Orlando Rescue Operations Manager Jon Peterson. The move came just days after Peterson’s team performed emergency surgery on a sea turtle with a blockage in its abdomen, which turned out to be sea debris made up of plastic. “This is a very common thing we deal with in rescue,” Peterson added.

“Employees at the park said they’d been phasing out the plastic items for some time and had heard very few complaints from the public.” The company has made paper straws available, upon request, at the park’s restaurants.

Closer to home, Ocala’s Brooklyn’s Backyard recently announced they too would switch from plastic straws to biodegradable/eco-friendly straws.

“We want to be part of the solution not part of the pollution,” restaurant management announced on their Facebook page. “Every year the United States uses enough straws to fill up Yankee Stadium nine times. Even though our expense will increase five times, we are still committed to helping where we can. If everyone does their part, maybe this world would be a better and cleaner place.”

Diners have voiced their approval.

“This is wonderful. Such a great way to help the planet,” says Alexandra Hernandez of Ocala. “Let’s see if more local businesses follow your lead.”

Janna Gardner, also of Ocala, went a step further. “Thank you for inspiring our family to join the movement by making this small change,” she exclaimed. “No more straws for us!”

That sentiment is at the heart of the movement. Although they are among the top 10 pollutants of the world’s beaches, straws are only part of the monumental waste that enters our oceans. That larger picture can be overwhelming for consumers who struggle with convenience versus environmental concerns. But of all the single-use plastics, straws are seen as the easiest to give up. Environmentalists see the act of ditching them as a gateway for consumers to rejecting other singleuse plastics such as bags and bottles.

“A straw is not an essential part of your daily life,” o ers Rise Above Plastics Coalition chair Davey Connor. “You use it for a couple of minutes and it’s in the ocean, it’s on the beach for 100 years.”

Organizations like Lonely Whale, a non-profit that has successfully campaigned to eliminate straws, puts that number closer to 200 years and explains why straws are not recycled.

“Plastic straws are too lightweight to make it through mechanical recycling sorters, so they end up in landfills and waterways and, eventually, our oceans,” says Executive Director Dune Ives. “Those that find their way into the marine environment break down into microplastics and when a marine animal eats plastic they have a 50 percent mortality rate.”

Those that survive and make their way into the food chain inevitably pass those microplastics on to us, both through the fi sh on our plates and the water in our bottles. Researchers are currently investigating how harmful these toxic microplastics are to humans.

“Fifty percent of the plastic we use is single-use and is immediately thrown away,” explains Tessa Hempson, operations manager for Oceans

Without Borders. “One million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.”

And experts predict that by 2050, there will actually be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

To keep our environment free of pollutants, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is asking Florida residents, visitors, schools and businesses to reduce their plastic use and pledge to “Skip the Straw” for one week. If every person in Florida participated, we could reduce pollution from plastic straws by approximately 2.35 million.

While not using a straw is best, some people prefer or need them, like those with sensitive teeth/gums. Final Straw, Steelys Drinkware and Simply Straws o er reusable metal or glass straws, and Aardvark paper straws are also a good alternative.