Straws, Something You Find Everywhere

Straws, Something You Find Everywhere

Everyday, we are slowly drinking up our oceans and polluting the Earth with straws. Although a small and slim tube may not sound much of a problem, straws have been growing to be one of the biggest contributors to litter problems. For my You & The World project, I have decided to focus my ideas into littering. Litter is something you can find anywhere and everywhere and there are many causes and dangers that could happen.

Photo of straws collected near a beach that could have harmed many animals

I grew up seeing trash everywhere I walked. The world isn’t perfect but the amount of trash left on the streets was much more than I’ve seen in other places. In one moment of my life, I went on to the beach and found many littered items. One of them happened to be a straw and I had seen it around a trash bin but it may had fell off by the wind. Later on, I saw a bird go by and suddenly, my natural reaction was to scare the bird away. It was strange but now that I realized it, I might have saved that bird’s life. Ever since then, I feel some type of way towards littering which is what led up to this point of my life.

Knowing this, littering has been one of the topics that has not been brought up to many people and often times ignored. What we’re doing is ruining the future of our planet and by doing this, we are slowly hurting many animals besides us humans currently. In addition, one of scientists’ main purpose of looking out into outer space is to find a new planet that can support life which wouldn’t be needed if we could conserve and help Earth. Nonetheless, I plan to start small and build up to bigger goals that are possible. By beginning with straws, we are able to start small and have a gateway to solving greater problems with littering and plastic pollution.

The amount of straws being used is enough to fill the Yankee Stadium over 9 times a year

Straws are commonly found in fast food places or diners where it is unnecessary to have a straw for a beverage. A place where plastic straws are commonly found and most dangerous to animals are near beaches. Plastic straws end up being caught in the ocean and there has been a video of a turtle with a straw was stuck inside one of its nostrils. This was only an example of what happened with plastic straws but the journey to end plastic straws starts now.

Photo of the straw in the turtle’s nose

Knowing this, littering has been one of the topics that has not been brought up to many people and often times ignored. What we’re doing is ruining the future of our planet and by doing this, we are slowly hurting many animals besides us humans currently. In addition, one of scientists’ main purpose of looking out into outer space is to find a new planet that can support life which wouldn’t be needed if we could conserve and help Earth. Nonetheless, I plan to start small and build up to bigger goals that are possible. By beginning with straws, we are able to start small and have a gateway to solving greater problems with littering and plastic pollution.

An image of litter in Philadelphia

Plastic straws have specific problems as to why they are bad for the environment and living organisms. One of them is because straws are not biodegradable, meaning the plastic will only get broken up into small pieces which could be consumed by living organisms. Another problem is that straws can only be recycled once and only little amounts of the straw makes it through to be used again. Lastly, plastic straws still exist as one contributors to the amount of plastic that is in the air, ground, etc. Overall, plastic stays in our environment because there is nothing in nature that can biodegrade plastic which means stopping the use of plastic straws can be a gateway to solving bigger problems with plastic.

Now, you may ask what can you do now? The answer may sound tricky but you could actually just do less. If we prevent the use of plastic straws, then we can slowly help the give out a message that plastic straws are not healthy for the environment. In addition, there are many alternatives to plastic straws such as reusable straws. Typically, plastic straws are used once and then tossed into a trashcan where the light, small tube is blown away into the environment.

Overall, I plan to further my research on my ways to help bring the numbers of litter down. I want to first focus on straws to use it as a gateway to start small and simple. One of my goals is to avoid the use of plastic straws nearby my neighborhood and everyday life.

Annotated Bibliography