VICTOR JOECKS: Bring back plastic straws

Inconveniencing Americans has not reversed water pollution. I ordered an iced coffee and water for my partner at a Starbucks in California. When I reached for the straw to give her the drink, I noticed it was a paper straw. The paper straw tasted awful, and my partner, who likes to sip her coffee throughout the day, soon saw that the straw appeared to be coming apart. Plastic straws resolved these issues decades ago, yet advocates have spent years urging governments and businesses to abandon them. Other plastic items, such as utensils and bags, have faced similar criticism. “By 2050 there will be more plastic in the water than fish,” For a Strawless Ocean states on its website. “There’s something YOU can do about it!” Plastic pollution in the oceans is a serious problem, highlighted by heartbreaking images of animals entangled in debris. Giving up a straw seems like a small sacrifice to avert such tragedies. Plastic‑straw opponents in California, New York and other states have succeeded in imposing various restrictions on plastic straws. Even in Nevada, Starbucks and Costco now provide lower‑quality straws than they previously did. Nevertheless, these efforts have not curbed water pollution. “The amount of plastic in the water is still rising,” the United Nations reported in June. It added, “Plastic discarded emissions are estimated at 52.1 million metric tons per year.” That figure is troubling, but Slurpee straws used by American suburbanites did not create the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Ocean Cleanup estimates the floating mass of debris covers more than 1.5 million square kilometers—about twice the size of Texas. “Our study conducted in 2022 reveals 75% to 86% of plastic debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) originates from fishing activities at sea,” The Ocean Cleanup said. As I last checked, fishing nets are not made of straws. According to Stop Ocean Plastic, the leading contributors to ocean plastic are the Philippines, India, Malaysia, China and Indonesia—nations that use substantial amounts of plastic and struggle to collect their waste. Many residents in those countries discard trash on the ground rather than in bins, a practice that is rare here but common there. With extensive river systems and coastlines, those countries see plastic flow into the sea. “The single strongest predictor of ocean‑bound plastic is whether a country’s waste collection strategy reaches its population,” Stop Ocean Plastic asserts. These nations do not need their coffee shops to stop using plastic straws; they require better garbage‑collection systems. That is a far more challenging task and will not be solved by getting blue cities and states to ban straws. It would also necessitate acknowledging that the United States protects the environment more effectively than most other countries. Addressing that disparity would make a meaningful difference in solving the problem that plastic‑straw champions claim to care about. At least I can tease my partner that she drinks from a sippy cup.