Are Metal Straw better than Plastic Straws?

Is going eco-friendly beneficial for a prosperous future? Metal straws are just the start to make our planet good and restored once again, as it’s been too long. We ignored the needs of our home, by producing massive amounts of plastics that pollute oceans, harm wildlife, and destroy the balance of nature. Metal straws are not just the key but are one of the building blocks to help make a change. Due to the harmful impacts of plastic straws on us and our environment, metal straws are one step in a positive direction toward sustainable change for our planet’s future.

Metal straws are much safer to use than plastic straws there in our daily lives. Unlike plastic straws or any other plastic material, metal really doesn’t break down. Plastic straws or any other plastic material breaks down into smaller pieces in which it causes a harmful chemical to be released wherever it lands including the ocean, soil, or the air, causing harm to us, humans, to all living things, and to our home itself. Since plastic is releasing harmful chemicals, it causes pollution. An article was written by Hodges, Trent “Should Plastic Straws Be Banned”, talks about the pollution of plastic production and how plastic ends up causing damage, and how much plastics are wasted. “The world is facing a crisis of single-use plastic pollution. An estimated 5 to 13 million tons of plastic waste, including straws, enter the ocean each year. This affects our ecosystems, marine life, and even the water we drink. Some studies project that by 2050, there could be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish if we don’t take action now to turn the tide” – Hodges, Trent “Should Plastic Straws Be Banned” paragraph 2. If the pollution takes over, it causes climate change which will affect us in every way. With plastic pollution, also comes the effect of it affecting our earth. In this case, the effect would be global warming. The sunlight and heat cause the plastic to release powerful greenhouse gases, leading to a feedback loop. As this affects our climate, it also causes changes as the planet gets hotter, and with the planet getting hotter the plastic breaks down into microplastic, increasing the rate of climate change. An article, written by Chitaka, Takunda Y “In pursuit of environmentally friendly straws: a comparative lifecycle assessment of five strong material options in South Africa”, talks about global warming being surrounded by the plastic we waste, the changes we can make, and the more options we have so we don’t have these harmful things that impact our planet. “The highest climate change impact was observed for plastic straws with 0.205 kg CO_{2 eq}, whereby resin production contributed 91%. This is due to the use of coal as a feedstock for polypropylene production, as well as the primary energy source through the life cycle.” -Chitaka, Takunda Y, “In pursuit of environmentally friendly straws: a comparative lifecycle assessment of five strong material options in South Africa” paragraph 33 under Life cycle impact assessment results, because these plastic straws are a single usage, they are produced from fossil fuels, the process of extracting and creating these plastics give out a large number of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Most plastics are produced from natural gases, oil, coal, aka fossil fuel. It is during this time, during the production that the fossil fuels are then let go into our atmosphere, the ozone layer to then cause damage, all for single use of plastic no one cares about.

Plastic ends up in places where it shouldn’t such as our oceans, trees, or even around and animals had because we don’t look or care where we put our trash. Plastic straws should be banned from many stores because once a person takes a drink while on the go and they finish, what happens? They just throw it on the ground, or they chew on it and once they’re done, they just spit it out onto the ground. We have machines that are used to recycle or pick up trash, and sometimes they don’t pick up the plastic straws, causing them to go back once again to land or the ocean to cause harm once more. Blair Rainsford stated the cons of plastic straws in his article “A Plastic Straw Problem”, where he talks about where straws end and the harm it does. As stated in the article he states “No one wants our oceans to be full of plastic. Some places have come up with a solution. They are banning plastic straws in restaurants and other stores. That means people won’t be allowed to use them anymore.” – Rainsford, Blair “A Plastic Straw Problem” Line 12 of his debate. And for example, let’s say a bunch of plastic ends up in the ocean and kills off a shark species, what happens? That one shark species it’s not around to eat their prey, which leaves their food source to overpopulate because overpopulation breaks the system and chain, which that can’t be broken, and just like building blocks, you need the lower parts for support, take it away and everything collapses. From a video from Tech Insider, “Why Plastic Straws Suck” Tech Insider talks about a group of people in 2015 found a turtle with a plastic straw up its nose and talks about how AA, Starbucks, and other places are planning to remove the plastic straws from its stores to make it a more eco-friendly environment. In an interview with Dr. Leonard, he states “And so they created what we call Microplastics, we’re finding these flecks of plastics and everything from the forage fish that are at the base of the food web through the kind of fish that we end up putting on our dinner plate.” -Tech Insider and Dr. Leonard at 2:11 into the video. It is now where we find the smallest piece of plastic in our food and do not think much of it, we end up getting sick from it because these plastics have a variety of toxic properties in them. Banning plastic straws helps reduce the amount of it that enters our oceans. So, if we don’t like getting sick from the smallest plastics we find in our food, imagine how our marine life or any other living thing feels.

The change of plastic straws would be going ecofriendly in this case to metal straws come to help ensure a better place to live. now the question goes without saying how we can change from something harmful to us and the environment to something that’s more impactful. any type of non-reusable item is a no-go, to one it leads to pollution damage to the atmosphere and harmful to humans and animals and to our ecosystem. In the article by Rainsford, Blair, states “All that plastic is bad for the ocean. The plastic doesn’t disappear. It breaks down into tiny pieces. Those pieces can stay in the ocean for a very long time. They can pollute the water, and animals can eat them by accident. That makes the animals really sick.” – Rainsford, Blair “A Plastic Straw Problem” line 10 in his debate. Plastic straws or any other type of plastic material is not something that is heavy, it is very light and so light that wind can easily pick them up and move them from point A to point Z. What many don’t understand is that our actions have some type of consequences to it, in this case with any type of non-reusable item that is only used once. So, changing to metal straws or reusable items will decrease the amount of plastic that is thrown around without a care. An article written by Rossi, Giuseppe “A new eco-friendly packaging material made of straws and bioplastic”, is about the damage of fossil fuels, and the actions we should make and what are the steps to making those changes happening with reusing straws and make bioplastic. “While the recycling of metal, wood, paper, and cardboard packaging has been significantly improved, and efficient recycling or disposal of some plastics is not yet feasible.” –Rossi, Giuseppe paragraph 1, page 1 called Abstract. Meaning that plastic straws or any other type of plastic products can’t be recycled so easily, they don’t even make it to the end of the recycling. Ensuring that these machines work, the government should be testing these machines out, not only with big solid objects but smaller ones like straws and bags to ensure they can help decrease plastic pollution in our oceans.

Metal straws are just the beginning to help save the environment. Although it may not seem like much, getting rid of plastics would help reduce so much global warming and more. If we change to an eco-friendly setting, we’ll work toward ensuring that many future generations to come will have a better system to live in than how we live in it today.