Last year there was a very powerful video posted by the Leatherback Trust of a turtle with a plastic straw stuck up her nostril . This example highlights the very real impact straws are having on wildlife.
Straws first become popular in the 1900’s as a way to limit the spread of infectious disease such as polio, but it wasn’t until the 1950’s in the good old US of A that straws really became popular with the advent of fast food. By the 1960’s straws had shifted from a wax-coated, bio-gradable type to a petroleum plastic type that we see today.
Today, in the US alone, 500,000,000 straws are produced and thrown away, every single day. Almost all of these end up either as waste or as pollution in the oceans and land.
If you don’t want to add to this pile there are a couple of things you can do. The most obvious and cheapest is to say no. Talk with your local restaurant or bubble tea shop and make sure they understand why you don’t want the straw.
But if you absolutely cannot go without then why not carry around your own, personalised straw. You can buy these almost anywhere such as the cool selection at Simple Straws.
Why not try and make today your last straw!
There are so many ways in which we can help reduce our environmental footprint but with so much going on it is hard sometimes to remember. Rather than remember, the best way is to form a habit and the best way to form a habit is by utilising the 3 R’s:
- Reminder (the trigger that initiates the behavior)
- Routine (the behavior itself; the action you take)
- Reward (the benefit you gain from doing the behavior)
Each week, for 52 weeks, we will post a new idea to help you reduce your waste and work towards a cleaner less polluted lifestyle. Hopefully, by the end, some of the idea’s will become habitual and stick with you forever. Consider this to be your gift to the world.
#reducewaste #environmentalfootprint #onebrownplanet
Your information will never be shared.