Plastic drink straws may not seem like a big deal, but in reality they are one of the main variables in destroying our oceans. In the US, 500 million plastic straws are used every day, not even counting the rest of the globe. If we keep up plastic straw consumption at this rate, by the year 2050 there will be more straws in the ocean than fish. Many people think that these straws can be recycled, that it's not an issue. But in fact, most plastic straws are too lightweight to make it through the sorters. They end up falling through the machines and get disposed as garbage. Something as small as a plastic drinking straw may not seem like an idea that is "Thinking Big", but it can make all the difference in saving our oceans.

I agree that we should stop of limit the use of plastic straws. You make some good points on how much plastic straws affect our environment. As I was reading an article from National Geographic, I was more aware of how bad plastic straws are for the ocean. Most of the time plastic straws do not make it into the recycling bin. Photos provided in the article show straws and other plastic material on the beach. Their small size makes it easy for animals to mistake them for food. Ingesting plastic is quite hazardous for marine life and can result in death. There are other alternatives to using plastic straws. Bamboo and paper straws are biodegradable.  Another solution is to stop using plastic straws all together. Although this is quite a radical idea, it can really benefit sea life.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/201 … vironment/

maybe if there is a media campaign that makes it cool to use bamboo straws, people will do it.  perhaps with a celebrity proposing that?

I agree that this is a very worldwide problem because even though plastic straws seem like a small problem, they are very dangerous to sea life and our environment. Straws are an example of single use plastic. This plastic has a short lifespan, usually used once and then discarded to landfill. Like most plastics, they never biodegrade and take hundreds of years to break down. As time goes by plastic will separate into smaller and smaller pieces, but will never fully breakdown. In the U.S alone, 500 million plastic straws are used everyday. We use straws for about 20 minutes, until we throw them away, which proves how little importance they are to us, but how harmful they are to the environment. This lifespan is fairly short for an item that will be on the planet forever. Marine life is very negatively effected with plastic straws and the only solution to this problem is to simply stop using them. There are other solutions such as paper straws or even bamboo straws  and in the big scheme of things, does a straw really matter? Therefore, let's work to stop using plastic straws because they are hurting our environment and are very harmful to sea life.

https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/s … usly-suck/

I agree with all of these ideas that straws and other single-use plastics need to be avoided. Several cities around the US and the world have made laws to prevent the use of non-biodegradable plastics. Recently, the UK proposed a plan to ban the use of straws, cotton swabs, and other single-use plastics. Likewise, Scotland plans to be rid of plastic straws by 2019 while Taiwan is making efforts to end the use of single-use plastics by 2030. I stopped using straws a few years ago because I came across a video that showed the harmful effect that a single straw could have on marine life when a sea turtle had a straw stuck up its nose. Therefore, whenever, I go out and have a drink, I'm sure to skip the plastic lid and the straw whenever it's offered. All it takes is one straw at a time to limit if not end the use of plastic straws and save our one and only Earth along with all of the life on it.
(The first link is one to the sea turtle video. WARNING: video may be di sturbing to viewers.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MPHbpmP6_I
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/03/clim … -bans.html

I agree with you that plastic drinking straws are a problem in today's society. People don't understand the harm these little pieces of plastic can do to our oceans. Since they are so small, they can quickly get into sewage pipes and pipes that lead to the sea. As these juice boxes get produced more straws are produced. If we keep creating plastic straws, the rate will be higher than the amount of fish in the ocean. Making these straws thicker and bigger can prevent the rate they are just left behind. When we make these straws bigger and thicker, we will rapidly see changes in the waste rate our ocean currently has. Slight changes like drinking more water and using reusable containers will help the earth reduce its total waste rate.