This coming week voters in Chicago will vote on a very serious issue. Should the city of Chicago ban the use of plastic straws? These voters aren’t being asked about guns, they are being asked about the deadliest weapon in the deadliest city in America, plastic straws. 259 people have been shot in October in Chicago. Out of these 259, 47 people have died. Clearly plastic straws are more of an issue than the violence in Chicago. So clearly plastic is our menace.

 

 

Plastic. Where does it go? How is it made? Well, my fellow Americans, we really don’t care about that now do we? When its game day, we buy packs of soda with plastic rings holding them together. Who cares what happens to it after were done chugging that sugary toxin? These rings are creeping their way into waterways and are extreme environmental problems. (Kinkela, 1) When you’re looking for a quick bite, why not head to McDonalds? The golden arches of America are the masters of wasteful packaging. Before you snap a social media picture of your Starbucks drink, you notice something different. Is it something with the cup? Or is it the cup holder? Wait a minute, where’s the plastic straw?

 

 

I introduce you to the worlds new enemy: plastic straws. Legislatures around the country are joining the everlasting battle against these tubes of destruction. Clearly plastic straws are the most pressing issue in our society. Forget about doing something about the great pacific garbage patch, which is approximately twice the size of Texas, or the burning of fossil fuels; getting rid of plastics straws must be a priority! (Wallace, 126) This nebulous mass has no definite shape, form, or limits. (Wallace, 127) The perfect way to counteract this monstrosity is to cease the straws!

 

 

How well are we Americans handling our waste? Clearly legislatures in California have been focusing on a plastic straw ban throughout the state. Specific cities include, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. (Shapiro, 1) San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors announced a possible new ordinance preventing restaurants and retailers from handing out straws, stirrers and toothpicks beginning next year. (Shapiro, 1) Plastic straws are mesmerizing for Californians as we can see. Will phasing out plastic straws make a difference? Maybe these Californians are on to something. Seattle, San Luis Obispo and Malibu have also embraced the straw ban, too, so there may be some legitimacy to this ban. (Shapiro, 1)

 

 

On the other hand, this could be another publicity stunt to “save” the environment. In order to see if phasing out all plastics straws in the US will actually slow down the rate of the ever-growing pacific garbage patch, we must do research and research and even more research.

 

 

The history of plastic. This useful but problematic discovery occurred in the era of the baby boomers; immediately after World War II. (Meikle, 1) Binkies must have been in high demand after world war II. Those new born babies during the baby boomer period were just crazy for their binkies. Jokes aside, plastic became more widely used during the war in modern cities. Historically, real growth of the plastics industry stemmed from a shortage of rubber and light metals during world war II. (Lang, 729)

 

During the war, new innovations were being made to medicine and weapons alike. Plastic found its way into consumerism after World War II. (Meikle, 1) Baby Boomers were the first to become crazed with plastic. They played with Wham-O hula hoops and frisbees, Barbie dolls and Revell airplane models, Lego blocks and Mattel machine guns. (Meikle, 1) Hopefully, barbie comes with a bathing suit since she’s most likely to end up in the ocean.

 

At first plastic was deemed a miraculous substance, being able to take many degrees of shape, texture, hardness, density, resilience, and color. (Meikle, 2) The plastic messiah has arrived! Humans are incredibly high tech but are inconsiderate of the self-destruction we will cause in the future. Technology is supposed to improve the world around us, but it is just adding to the growing problem of the destruction of our planet such as plastic polluting the oceans. This plastic breaks down into microscopic pieces and ends up in fish that we then eat. Delicious plastic infested fish!

 

 

You would think that the writing of Norman Mailer would affect the use of plastic, well consumerism slapped his writings straight in the face. In fact, the production only increased—hooray for America! In the years following World War II, production of plastics in the United States grew from 1.8 billion pounds produced in 1951 to almost 57 billion pounds produced in 1988. (Lang, 729) As you can see we Americans care deeply about the consequences of plastic.

 

 

Most people would ask, why would plastic have a negative consequence? Clearly many Americans are oblivious to this since plastic has gripped every aspect of their daily lives. Well people there is one word to describe this consequence, permanence. (Lang, 729) So your plastic Keurig will last forever, so what?

One of the biggest repercussions of using plastic, is in fact its permanence.

 

 

The plastic’s inherit resistance to biodegradability is buoyant. (Lang, 729) Plastic evades these “hermeneutic microorganisms”. (Wallace, 126) Since plastic is routinely dumped into the ocean each year, the increasing years of dumping become more apparent. (Lang, 729) That’s right, you can find your straws in the ocean folks. Maybe an organization should be created and be devoted to collecting straws from the ocean to reuse? That would be a fantastic idea, if only plastic straws were just a fraction of the overall plastic in the ocean.

 

 

#stopsucking, the new hashtag for a new cause. Since America is kicking out straws will it actually help our environment? Every major company, several American cities, and smug instagrammers are all for this movement. (Houck, 1) Americans supposedly use 500 million straws a day. (Houck, 1) This number has been argued since it seems way out of proportion. There are only 325 million people in the US. The Pacific Garbage Patch isn’t even mostly composed of plastic straws, its mostly fishing gear. (Houck, 2) If the US cuts back on its 500 million straws a day it won’t really affect the garbage patch. Straws are so insignificant and tiny to contribute to the patch. Fishing gear and plastic bottled are the main pollutants.

 

 

Since plastic straws aren’t the main pollutant, why are we focusing on them? Plastic straws are commonly referred to as “the world’s most wasteful commodity”, but that isn’t true. (Houck, 2) This could be a distraction from the main problem we must deal with. Instead of getting rid of the straw, it would be more effective to replace the whole plastic cup with paper cups. This costs more money to accomplish, and we all know corporate greed comes first. This plastic straw ban is shifting the attention toward a cheaper and less environmental impacting cause. Corporations are too cheap to put in the money to fully become eco-friendly. As long as their pockets are full, they are happy.

 

 

Starbucks has been the main talk of the straw ban. It has been a bad year for them with all the racist episodes in their shops. This straw ban was an easy win for the Starbucks PR team. (Houck, 2) This major corporation doesn’t care to save the environment, just its brand name. This ban is just to distract us from the real and more effective ways of lessening plastic pollution.

 

An all plastic ban should be produced to phase out ALL plastic in the US, not only straws, but this will likely not happen since no one expects consumers to give up convenience completely. (The Times Editorial Board, 3) This will also drive up the price of the plastic alternatives. (The Times Editorial Board, 3) If we don

 

’t implement a stricter plastic ban, on most items, there will be eventually more plastic than fish in the sea. (The Times Editorial Board, 3) Dory will just keep swimming through the plastic.

 

 

On the other hand, this ban has some good in it. It’s better than doing absolutely nothing as most Americans do. Americans think that throwing their garbage “away” sends it into space. News flash, it gets dumped in the ocean. This ban is bringing attention towards the issue of plastic pollution. Plastic straws are whimsy little things, but they do have some environmental impact of course, as do all man-made things. Since straws are made from very thin plastic, they are easier to break up in the ocean. Since plastics do not bio degrade, they break apart into micro plastics. (Houck, 3) These micro plastics are impossible to retrieve out of the environment. These microplastics are the true menace from these straws since the plastics will end up in the seafood we eat. Microplastics are also being found in rivers and streams. Plastic also ends up in freshwater. If the freshwater contains microplastics, then nearby vegetation and freshwater animal life will also become corrupted with these microscopic pieces of plastic. Why not recycle the plastic so it wont break down in the ocean? Well straws are also hard to recycle as well. (Houck, 3)

 

 

Banning straws will also help to demote manufacturers from producing them. The new hip thing in pop culture now is to have a sippy cup or a paper straw. Young people have gotten into “saving the world”, one sip at a time. The ban is spreading the word, and people are listening. Big companies will listen to their consumers and ultimately stop producing plastic straws. We, there American citizens have the power to help change our environment.

 

 

By limiting and reducing the amount of plastic straws used in the US, plastic pollution will decrease slightly. Just remember we are taking baby steps even though we need to be taking big boy steps immediately. Hopefully from straws we will move onto plastic bottles and plastic cups, a much more widely spread pollutant.

 

Change begins small and ends big, hopefully this scenario plays out. Limiting plastic straws in the US will certainly provide minor positive impacts on the environment although it won’t cause a major impact on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. A minor fraction of plastic won’t be let out in the ocean, which is a win, but we can come up with and do better for our plastic world.

 

Here’s the bottom line: I’m a barbie girl in a barbie world….. aka a plastic world!

 

Jonathan Smilovich is a well renowned student at CCNY and is a graduate of Paul D Schreiber High School.

 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.​​​