The Impact of Plastic Straws on Our Environment - Essay Sample

Introduction

Plastics are part of human beings' daily lives as they are used for commercial and individual purposes. According to Gibbens (1), different restaurants, including Starbucks, Bon Appétit Management, Alaska Airlines, and McDonald's, have plans of phasing out the use of plastic straws. In the United States, about 500 million straws are utilized daily, and on a recently conducted study, about 8.3 billion straws (plastic) pollute the beaches of the world (Romero Mosquera 11). Plastics straws form 0.025% of the 8 million plastic tons flowing in the oceans yearly (Gibbens 1).

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Thesis Statement

At the micro-level, plastics improve sunflower yield with only minimal pollution, but at the macro-environmental level, they cause the death of creatures, pollute the marine ecosystems, and reduces the aesthetics of the environment due to building up caused by non-biodegradability.

Main Argument/Position

Plastic straws should be banned and not be used any longer, especially in food chains where they are commonly used. The main reason is that plastic straws are so easily disposable; they fill the ocean causing many sea creatures to die from suffocation. Humans overconsume plastics, plastics are non-biodegradable, and they dispose of them improperly, which has highly increased the issue of plastics in the ocean. In the central ocean, gyres plastics have been found, and since about 500 million straws are used by Americans daily (Romero Mosquera 6). Furthermore, plastic straws are lightweight, which means that most of them are not recycled, and they end up polluting the oceans and further killing marine life.

Another environmental impact of the plastic straw is that it results in pollution. Plastic pollution is due to plastic waste buildup, which has accumulated over the years. According to Lisdayanti et al. (2789), “one type of plastic waste that is commonly found in plastic straws, this is included in the top five types of plastic waste.” It means that plastic straws is among the top five types of plastics that pollute the environment. The collected plastic straws usually find their ways into the oceans, rivers, and lakes where aquatic life is endangered when they are exposed to or ingest the toxins that come from it (Vernon 1). Some marine mammals, sea turtles, sea birds, and wildlife might be ensnared or trapped in the plastic straw waste. Millions of seabirds, turtles, other wildlife, and seabirds die yearly from complications resulting from plastic consumption. Approximately 30% of turtles and 70% seabirds have ingested plastic from the ocean (Vernon 1). Furthermore, the straws end in the waterways and especially oceans because of beach littering. Wind does transport objects that are lightweight from trash collection cans and services and barges aquatic and boat transport (Vernon 1). It is also because the plastic straws break in small particles and release chemicals in water, air, and soil harmful to people, animals, plants, and the general environment.

Plastic straws are harmful to the environment since they are not degradable (Wang et al. n.p). It means that bacteria cannot break the plastic straws naturally and turning the other decomposers to nontoxic materials. According to Lisdayanti et al. (2789), in 2050, plastic waste might be higher than the number of fish if there are no measures taken. Also, plastic straws are too small, meaning it is difficult to recycle them, making them transpire in landfills, and when they are tossed, they do not decompose. Therefore, the best way of keeping them from landfills is by not using them.

Summary of Opposition

Banning plastic straws is not the best option as it will not reduce pollution (Stanislaus 1). Other items contribute to environmental pollution apart from plastic straws. Instead, governments should slow the corrupting food chain and plastic fouling oceans. For instance, bottles and even other plastic items are made from polythene terephthalate, and only a little material is brought back for reuse or reprocessing. Plastic straws only form a small fraction of plastic ending up in the oceans (Stanislaus 1). It means that banning it will not provide a significant benefit to the environment by reducing pollution or protecting marine life. Banning straws will not save the oceans. Instead, consumers can be made to pay for their waste because banning them might affect people with disabilities. For instance, people with Down syndrome usually use straws as it makes their work easy, and they can be accessed easily. Other options, such as pushing individuals to be environmentally conscious, can be taken in saving the oceans. Also, banning plastic will leave people with the impression that plastic pollution has been resolved without even discussing the systematic solution (Stanislaus 1). The society should think about the products it consumes and their impacts on the environment. Thus, they need to invest in alternatives.

Plastic straws should not be banned as they improve Takyr Solonetzs salt and water characteristics and sunflower oil yield. An experiment conducted by 吕 雯 et al. (125) conducted an experiment on plastic straw and film combined mulching (PSM), which proved the benefit of plastic straws. The experiment results confirmed that the treatment of PSM improved water holding capacity and storage of about 0.3 to 1-meter soil layer (吕 雯 et al. 125). Also, water activity in the soil layer in PSM treatment in the experiment was high as compared to single coverage methods. On the other hand, soil surface salt accumulation was delayed in another crop growth stage, which reduced soil salinity toxicity in crops early salt delicate growth. The combined mulching resulted in improved soil structure. Moreover, PSM treatment resulted in improved yield and survival rate of sunflower oil at the seedling level.

Follow-up Argument/Rebuttal to Opposition

Although the plastic straws are indeed beneficial as they improve sunflower yield, their negative impacts are higher than the benefits. For instance, plastic straws result in the death of sea creatures and pollution. Therefore, a single benefit cannot be compared to the several negative impacts imposed by plastic straws. The death of these sea creatures means that if an initiative is not taken to ban plastics, then they will continue dying in large numbers, and in the future, the number of sea creatures will reduce significantly. This issue will even reduce food for humans as people eat some of the sea creatures.

I agree that banning plastic straws is not the best option for preventing pollution as it forms only a small fraction of the things that pollute the environment and pose a negative impact on marine life. Essentially, most of the things that pollute the environment are not from consumers. Instead, they are from the industries which are disposed of poorly. Although its true plastic only forms a small percentage, to make a significant step, one has to start by doing small things, which in this case, is banning plastic straws. If the plastic straws are banned, there will be no 0.025% plastic straws contributing to pollution. Also, about 500 million straws are used daily in the United States. Thus, banning plastic straws will highly reduce plastic pollution in lakes, rivers, and oceans.

Conclusion

At the micro-level, plastic straws improve sunflower yield with only minimal pollution, but at the macro-environmental level, they cause the death of creatures, pollute the marine ecosystems, and reduces the aesthetics of the environment due to buildup caused by non-biodegradability. It means that banning plastic straws is essential as it will help reduce the death of sea creatures and pollution. On the other hand, banning plastics straws might not be a good idea since they improve sunflower yield and only form a small fraction. Plastics straws may form a small fraction, but banning them will play a significant role in saving marine life.

Works Cited

Gibbens, Sarah. “A Brief History of How Plastic Straws Took over the World.” Plastic Straw Bans Are Spreading: Here's How They Took over the World, National Geographic, 3 Jan. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/news-plastic-drinking-straw-history-ban/.

Lisdayanti, Annisa, et al. “How to Reduce Plastic Waste by Using Social Media Marketing?” International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, vol. 24, no. 2, Apr. 2020, pp. 2789–2794. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=142327964&site=ehost-live.

Romero Mosquera, Marcela. "Banning Plastic Straws: The Beginning of the War Against Plastics." Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ) vol.9, no.1, 2019,1, https://lawpublications.barry.edu/ejejj/vol9/iss1/1

Stanislaus, Mathy. Banning Straws and Bags Won't Solve Our Plastic Problem. 16 Aug. 2018, www.wri.org/blog/2018/08/banning-straws-and-bags-wont-solve-our-plastic-problem.

吕 雯, et al. “地膜秸秆复合覆盖改善龟裂碱土水盐特性提高油葵产量.” Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, vol. 34, no. 13, July 2018, pp. 125–133. EBSCOhost, doi:10.11975/j.issn.1002-6819.2018.13.015.

Vernon, Rob. Straw or No Straw: How Our Choices Impact Aquatic Wildlife One Straw at a Time. 15 Nov. 2018, www.aza.org/from-the-desk-of-dan-ashe/posts/how-do-straws-hurt-the-environment.

Wang, Xizheng, et al. "All‐Natural, Degradable, Rolled‐Up Straws Based on Cellulose Micro‐and Nano‐Hybrid Fibers." Advanced Functional Materials, vol. 30, no. 22, 2020, 1910417.