Regardless of recycling plastic or not, upwards of 79% ends up either in landfills or into our oceans and land. Clearly, in our world today we have a major plastic problem that is just one product of our economic system. In the recent months, you have probably seen the many campaigns in cities and by certain companies like Starbucks that have vowed to eliminate the plastic straw. Straws unfortunately only make up a tiny fraction of all plastic that ends up in the ocean, but a first step is always necessary in a long journey. Removing plastics from our everyday lives will most likely not take an immediate effect on the environment around as there are literal tons floating in our ocean as you read this, but any action is still valuable.
California is spearheading the whole movement as they have banned all straws in restaurants to limit and end their usage. On September 20th, Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1884 which prohibits the usage of any plastic straws unless the customer requests one. The bill will take effect and January of 2019. Interesting enough, Governor Jerry Brown stated that plastic kills thousands of marine animals every year. One of the biggest culprits are plastic bags, which are often mistaken by turtles as jelly fish. Single use plastic bags have been banned in the state since 2014. The belief is that making a customer specifically request a plastic straw should deter them from choosing at all. There are other alternatives such as metal or wood straws that can be used more than once.
One of the main reason that straws are the subject of change is from a video that surfaced in 2015 of a straw being removed from a turtle’s nose. Straws are small and only make up for a tiny fraction of the plastic that we see floating in our oceans.
While we combat the problem of plastic waste, many are unaware of all the other waste that we struggle with. According to one Truthout article, 30% to 50% of all food in the United States becomes waste.
The people of California are not the only people taking initiative in eliminating the plastic straw. Major companies like Starbucks, and American Airlines have also made decisions to stop giving out these environmentally dangerous tools. Seattle has banned all plastic utensils within the city earlier this summer. But the question still remains, what will removing plastic straws do for our environment?
In the Business Insider article about the issue, CEO Dianna Cohen admitted that plastic straws are only the gate way for spreading information about our world’s plastic problem. The straw movement in a way is more symbolic than anything. Also, Cohen pointed out an irony in Starbuck’s campaign against straws. They may remove straws from their stores but the amount of plastic they are still incorporating in their stores is a “joke.”
Every product that us as Americans use today goes through some sort of processing chain. A simple t-shirt as seen in the NPR videos travels to several countries before reaching the United States. There are several costs that aren’t accounted for in the journey from raw material to material, and after the object is used.
Plastic disposal has been an enormous problem in our world recently as it can sit around in a landfill for decades without decaying. As stated in the beginning of the blog post, 79% of all plastic ends up somewhere either in a pile or floating in the ocean. Only 9% of all plastic is actually recycled. Which means even after using that plastic straw and recycling it, chances are it’s not going to be recycled.
Used plastic continues to build up at unsustainable rates. Most of the time it is shipped across the Pacific to China where it will sit in their massive landfills. If it does not make it to a land fill, chances are it will end up somewhere in the ocean. There is even a patch of trash in the Pacific which is almost twice the area of Texas. It is commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The patch is estimated to be nearly 99.9% plastic and shows no signs of shrinking or deteriorating.
So who is paying for the environmental damage caused by all of the plastic waste? The ideal answer would be the companies whose products like straws that make their way into the ocean. But unfortunately, these are just externalities to them and they hardly bat an eye to the damage they are causing.
The typical capitalistic firm is solely driven by profit. Every decision they make is regarding the profit they hope to make. As examined in the Guardian Post, companies have no incentive at all to conserve the environment. If a company did, they wouldn’t be able to compete with their competitors despite doing the ethical thing. But that is just the system of modern capitalism at work.
Fortunately, as discussed before, few companies are taking their own initiative to spread the knowledge of our environmental damage. Although it is currently unclear the actual effect the anti-straw campaigns will have for our problem it is certainly a start. If companies would spend their resources on cleaning up our oceans, then we would see a tangible change.
By ignoring the outcome of waste in our oceans, major companies are able to run high profits while ignoring one of their biggest costs. While many may feel like changing their straw usage will be their duty in saving the environment, they are sadly wrong. Cutting out all plastic products would make a change but unless everyone does that we will most likely not see a change. To see a significant change, we must look to the industries that run our economy and hope they take account for their damage to the environment.