These days, plastic straws are everywhere! They are so common, we don’t even notice them any more. But I bet the last time you ordered a drink in a restaurant or cafe or market stall it came with one of those pesky plastic tubes stuck in it.
They may be great for slurping up your shake, or blowing bubbles in your soda but when it comes to marine life, straws suck!! Why?
Very few straws are – or even can be – recycled. They are commonly used in takeaway drinks, so a lot also end up as litter. Because they don’t weigh very much, they get blown or carried out to sea. Straws are one of the top ten items found on beach cleanups around the world – not surprising if you think we use and throw away billions of them each year.
We found this amount of straws in less than one hour!
Once they get in the sea, straws can cause harm to creatures such as turtles. You might have seen a video of a sea turtle having a 12cm plastic straw removed from inside its nose – it went viral in 2015. We won’t post it here as it’s not nice viewing, but hopefully it will make you think about refusing a straw next time.
Saying no to straws in your drinks is also a great way to reduce waste in general, something all Trash Heroes should try to do. Straws are one of the most wasteful “single use” plastic items: used for just a few minutes but polluting the planet for hundreds of years afterwards.
“Plant plastic” straws are just as bad and also single use so the best is to refuse them altogether.
Our top tip for refusing straws is to ask your server at the time you order – check the Trash Hero Kids video above! Removing the straw once the drink has arrived won’t help.
If people are interested, you can also explain why you are refusing – maybe they will take notice and stop handing straws out at all!
If you really can’t live without a straw, then ask an adult if they would invest in a reusable glass or metal version for you. Just remember to wash it out after every drink!
