Plastic straws may be sucking the life out of our ecosystems.
Videos and images of tortoises with plastic straws stuck in their nostrils went viral in the past year, while high-profile conferences like the World Economic Forum say there might be more plastic than fish (in terms of weight) in the oceans by 2050. Plastic straws were among the top 10 items collected during the 2017 International Coastal Cleanup Day. In turn, some conservationists and policymakers have taken a keen interest in the demise of the disposable straw.
Case in point: the city of San Francisco, which has set environmental precedents for the country before (such as with their plastic bag ban), is proposing legislation to ban plastic straws in order to reduce litter in the city’s streets. The proposed initiative would prohibit single-use plastic straws and other plastic foodware such as plastic stir sticks, plastic toothpicks, and plastic splash sticks. The legislation also aims to eliminate persistent toxic fluorinated chemicals from foodware products.
If passed, the ordinance would take effect on July 1, 2019.
"Here in San Francisco, this is quite literally the last plastic straw,” San Francisco Supervisor Katy Tang, who proposed the legislation, said while announcing the news. “We need to step up and do something about our wasteful daily habits when there are other alternatives.”
“Millions of plastic straws are discarded annually and add to the tremendous waste in our society,” Supervisor Ahsha Safaí added. “We need to change people's behavior and provide a reusable option.”
It is worth noting San Francisco is not the only city considering this ordinance—or has already enacted a ban. New York City is eyeing similar legislation. Malibu, Calif., has already banned restaurants from handing out plastic straws and stirrers. Seattle is set to ban plastic straws and utensils. Across the pond, the United Kingdom is also gearing up to prohibit single-use plastics, such as straws. Institutions are following suit, too: Dignity Health has removed plastic straws and stirrers from its 39 hospitals, specifically in their cafeterias (there is an exception for patients).
The idea that consumers need to curb their consumption habits — or that the state needs to nudge them to — has long been part of the ongoing discourse in modern environmentalism. In a way, it is partly a result of consumers being pigeonholed by the oil and gas companies, the conglomerates who are manufacturing plastic. Yet as progressive cities move toward a plastic straw ban, one that will undoubtedly upset some interest groups — McDonald’s has reportedly pushed back already — it raises questions about civic responsibility and corporate responsibility. At what point do we share the responsibility of shifting our behavior with the corporations who manufacture the straws? What happened to systemic change rather than consumer behavior?
Writing in the Guardian, Martin Lukacs eloquently described this incongruity. In his piece “Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals,” Lukacs notes that according to the Carbon Majors Database, 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of the world’s carbon emissions since 1988. Keeping in that in mind, are consumers bans — rather than industrial regulation — really the answer?
Nicole Kozlowski, the Rise Above Plastics Program Vice Lead of the Surfrider Foundation in San Francisco, said these types of bans do make a positive impact on the environment, yet said that bans are not the one-size-fits-all solution to reducing plastic consumption.
“While these bans are seen as the weight falling on the consumers’ shoulders, it is more of an educational tool,” Kozlowski explained, who is also the co-founder of Wisdom Supply Co, a company that provides sustainable school supplies to teachers. “These statewide bans and legislators act as wide-sweeping public awareness about an issue that not everybody has the opportunity to learn about, and with a material like plastic straws that can’t be recycled, they are clogging storms drains, littering city streets and costing taxpayers in California millions of dollars to clean up and they are ending up on our shores and beaches.”
As Kozlowski explained, the ban is not a ban on straws—instead, it is part of the ongoing effort to prohibit plastic.
“The issue with plastic is that there is too much of it in the system and there is nowhere for it to go,” Kozlowski told Salon.
Mark Murray, Executive Director of Californians Against Waste, echoed Kozlowski’s sentiments about how plastic-straw bans are not about the straws, but about the plastic.
“While reducing the number of one-time-use plastic straws generated daily is an important objective, Supervisor Tang’s proposed ordinance is much more comprehensive than ‘banning straws,” said Mark Murray, Executive Director of Californians Against Waste. “Supervisor Tang’s proposed ordinance would update and expand San Francisco’s already successful local ordinance targeting disposal plastic food service ware. The measure will phase-out the use of most common disposable plastic utensils in favor of recyclable, compostable or reusable items.”
According to a study in the journal Science Advances, an estimated 8300 million metric tons of virgin plastics, those that have not been recycled, have been produced to date. By 2015, approximately 6300 metric tons of plastic waste had been generated; only 9 percent of which had been recycled. Twelve percent was incinerated, and 79 percent was collected in landfills or the natural environment. Plastic is a byproduct of fracking for oil, and as a natural gas, overwhelming evidence suggests it is largely responsible for Earth’s changing climate.
Kozlowski said what it boils down to is a fight against the world’s most powerful companies.
“Oil and gas companies are putting more effort into making more plastic products because they earn a quarter of their profits from the plastic production,” she said. “It is in their best interest to make plastic products cheap.”
These companies are reportedly receiving more investments. According to a report by the Center for International Environmental Law, in April 2016, the American Chemistry Council revealed the chemical industry will spend over $164 billion on 264 new facilities or expansion projects in the United States by 2023.
While consumers will be forced to forgo their straws, the companies manufacturing plastics—or the chemicals needed—are seemingly expanding their operations. Advocates and policymakers are hopeful that consumers bans will have a bottom-up approach to eventually shaking up the corporations that need it.
“I believe that the ban itself will force manufacturers to change their business model – especially as San Francisco is not the only jurisdiction with such proposed legislation,” Tang told Salon. “Manufacturers will need to get on board with the new regulations and a cultural shift in single-use plastic foodware.”
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