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Why the world declares war against plastic straws

10.04.2019

Do you know how much tons of plastic trash goes into the oceans every year? Over eight million tons. Do you know who takes the first place in TOP of waste sources? The plastic straws that we using for various drinks. Why, in recent years, entire countries have begun to actively promote environmental companies to combat these small thin straws, let’s try to figure it out.

Why the world declares war against plastic straws

According to representatives of international environmental organizations, it became known that plastic straws takes so far only 1/5 the plastic found in the world’s oceans.

However, this is not the main problem: the size and shape of these plastic products have made them a real threat to a bunch of marine animals and birds.

It’s one thing when animals get entangled in plastic trash , but quite another when they take this plastic garbage as food. Researchers estimate that 70 percent of birds and 25 percent of sea turtles contain one or another type of plastic in their esophagus. Over time, the stomachs of animals overflow, after which they die from hunger, because they are not able to digest all eaten plastic.

Why the world declares war against plastic straws

How world fighting with plastic straws? Last summer, the well-known Starbucks network announced that, from 2020, all its establishments will no longer use  plastic straws. Recall that today the Starbucks network has more than 28 thousand coffee houses.

After a short period of time, the English affiliates of McDonald’s took over the baton, which also reported the rejection of the straws in their restaurants. The situation is quite different in Mexico: there the war was declared against plastic straws at the state level. Mexican authorities are actively imposing bans on the use of these plastic products to protect the environment.

Environmentalists says that the public should not focus only on the tubes, but also try to solve the problem of plastic qustion using a complex methods.

Plastic pollution every year costs the world community nine billion dollars. In 2018, 545 megatons of plastics were produced worldwide, and by 2050 this figure will increasing to 1,100 megatons.