Living without Straws

July is plastic free July month (https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/). This is the last of four articles prepared by the See-Change WasteLess group, focused on different ways of reducing single use plastic in our lives.

One area in which we can reduce single use plastics is not using plastic straws.

In Australia, 2.47 billion plastic straws end up in landfill. Plastic straws, because they are lightweight, are easily blown into waterways and enter our oceans. Once they enter the oceans, they are extremely dangerous for our marine wildlife. Most of us have probably see the video (here) of the painful process of removing a plastic straw from the nose of a turtle – many find it very distressing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2J2qdOrW44

Here some suggestions for how you can reduce your usage of straws:

1.       Politely let your drink provider know that you don’t want a straw. Many places have responded to such requests and don’t provide straws unless people asked for them. That has only happened because enough people made it clear that they didn’t want a straw.

2.       Carry your own straw. Lots of retails outlets, including Kmart and Big W, now sell stainless steel, glass, silicone or bamboo straws. You can also buy carry sets which include a straw along with a cutlery set (see first article in this series on doing without plastic cutlery).

3.       If your favourite drink provider still provides plastic straws, why not suggest to them that they replace them with eco-friendly alternatives including paper straws, straw straws or compostable plant based straws.

Imagine the impact we would have if everyone carried a non plastic straw with them instead of seeing them lying around on the streets and in waterways.