The Final Straw

Mum came home from a rare weekend away and she had a present for us. Imagine our delight as we discovered a crazy curly straw! Nobody, and I mean nobody had one of these. They were both clear (I’m not sure that colour was an option back then) and we then spent hours sucking milk out of a glass, watching it go up and down the straw, spiralling its way into our mouths. 

This was a loooong time ago. Back when straws were rather rare, mainly for milkshakes during a treat out.

Fast forward to last week in Lanzarote. Yes a fair bit of sitting in the sun happily slurping anything from water to Fanta to Gin. And every glass came with a straw. If I was quick enough I would ask for no straw. If I forgot sometimes I could pull it out and ask them to take it back. (I hope it was reused, having generally only been in ice until that moment). The waiters were a bit perplexed and I usually had to explain that I was trying to not use plastic.

It has been my mission this year to not use straws, and to also only use a disposable coffee cup as a last resort. I bought a nifty collapsible cup which I like to get my coffee in now. If I forget, I will try to not use a lid on the takeaway cup. After all, if I get a cup of coffee a day, a lid a day too, at the end of the year I would possibly have a stack of lids taller than I am. And where might these end up? Yep the bottom of the ocean. 

It is a burgeoning problem for recyclers nowadays of the sheer volume of plastic that they are dealing with. They don’t seem to be able to keep up. China was the great recycler until recently and now they aren’t interested. 

I heard the other day that plastic has been found 11 miles down, on the ocean floor and we have all seen those awful pictures of turtles having straws extracted from their bleeding noses, or pooping out balloons or shopping bags, or squeezed by the plastic ‘thingy’ for cans of beer, their turtle shells growing around the restriction of the plastic. Here are more facts.......

https://www.earthday.org/2018/04/05/fact-sheet-plastics-in-the-ocean/

It doesn't seem real does it? I can look out at Dublin Bay and see only water. I was in New Zealand recently and saw nothing bobbing around, looking like the picture above. Yet, it is there folks, we can't see it in our own back ocean, but it is there alright. And it is our fault

How about, instead of needing the consumer to remember to ask for ‘no straw please’, the café owners and restauranteurs and bar staff, only give one when they are asked for? How about we think about our plastic use? How about we try to get into the practice of saying

No Straw Thanks.

It will catch on. We just have to start.

So my curly straw was well loved and well used. I have no idea where it is now, possibly, 45 years later, on the bottom of the sea, covered in barnacles and under a layer of other plastic detritus. 

The time to start doing something about this is now. Think of your frappes, coffees, single use plastic bottles, bags, pull tags, packaging. Anything plastic. 

We can at least start.