Would a no-straw policy on campus help the environment? Pro: Going strawless

GINA WONG Reporter @ginabwong99

When drinking beverages out in public, we are accustomed to drinking out of straw. Some of us also have found ourselves asking waiters and behind the counter workers at some fast food chains for a straw.

According to businessinsder. com, this first began when former Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1884 into law, which “prohibits dine-in restaurants from automatically providing plastic straws” to customers.

The law went into full effect on January 1, 2019.

“In the U.S. alone, approximately 500 million straws are used every single day,” according to nationalgeographic.com.

Pierce College should join in on the elimination of singleuse plastic straws because they are made out of polypropylene, which is not biodegradable.

Also, when recycled they become microplastics, which are fatal to marine life if consumed.

Two main reasons behind the sudden push to ban singleuse plastic straws come down to an environmental issue, which is to decrease pollution in our oceans and to protect marine life.

According to onegreenplanet. org, “The Great Pacific Ocean

Garbage Patch is roughly the size of our continent, and it contains approximately 100 million tons of debris, with 80 percent of it coming from human contamination.”

Furthermore, if we don’t want to swim in polluted oceans and sunbathe in sand-littered with trash, what makes us think that marine animals don’t mind swimming in plastic infested waters in their environment?

According to strawlessocean. org, by 2050, 99 percent of all seabird species will have ingested plastic. This is because they often mistake plastic for food.

When animals consume plastic they can die of starvation because it gets stuck in their stomach preventing them from eating their natural food.

Unfortunately, their stomach is not the only place where plastic is being found in their bodies.

A viral video back in 2015 captured a sea turtle that had a plastic straw stuck up its nostril, which had to be physically pulled out of its nose, causing it immense pain.

However, sometimes it takes videos such as this one to be the catalyst for change and get people to go strawless.

Whether we like it or not, change is coming and it's just around the corner.

As Starbucks announced that by 2020 they will eliminate plastic disposable straws, which decreases more than one billion straws a year. Instead, they will use recyclable, strawless lids that will resemble an adult sippy cup, according to a New York Times article.

In addition, a new policy at the beginning of the year had the California State Universities (CSU) jump on the bandwagon as well by having them eliminate plastic straws and bags.

According to calstate.edu, a new policy stated that the CSU’s 23 campuses “must phase out styrofoam food service items by January 2021 and discontinue sales and distribution of single-use plastic water bottles before January 2023.” pain and inflammation, controlling epileptic seizures, and possibly even treating mental illness and addictions. newsroom.roundupnews@gmail.com

If Pierce does decide to follow suit and eliminate singleuse plastic straws there can be some alternatives. These could be the use of metal, bamboo and glass straws to compensate, as all three are reusable and more environmentally friendly.

In society, if we have successfully adapted to the grocery bag ban by bringing our own reusable bags whenever we go grocery shopping, we can also adapt to the straw ban by getting used to drinking without the use of straws or we can simply carry around our own reusable straw.

Many researchers, including those funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are continuing to explore the possible uses of THC, CBD, and other parts of the cannabis plant for medical treatment.

Another plant that is part of the cannabis family that is often overlooked is industrial hemp. According to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, hemp is different from the marijuana plant because it is high in fiber and low in THC so it does not have any psychoactive effect to it.

Pierce has a Hemp Club on campus that focuses on the many uses of industrial hemp. The focal point of the club is to differentiate between the marijuana and hemp plant despite both being part of the cannabis family.

According to an article by Logan Yonavjak for Forbes Magazine, this hardy and renewable resource was refined for various industrial applications, including paper, textiles and cordage.

Over time, the use of industrial hemp has evolved into an even greater variety of products, including health foods, organic body care, clothing, construction materials, biofuels and plastic composites.

Sustainable hemp seed, fiber and oil are still used in raw materials by major companies, including Ford Motors, Patagonia, and The Body Shop, to make a wide variety of products, according to Yonavjak.