Restaurants are known for providing delicious and time saving meals when we are in need of something quick and easy. Unfortunately, restaurants are also known for giving out around 500 million straws daily, which end up floating in our oceans (Aardvark). Every year, companies spend more money than they should producing plastic straws when there are cheaper, earth friendlier and safer straw options such as bamboo. Restaurants all around the world should change to bamboo straws to show businesses there are better alternatives to straws than plastic, and to raise their restaurants popularity, but most importantly, help save the lives of millions of ocean animals and oceans themselves. With oceans covering around 70% of our planet, keeping oceans alive is critical to our generation.
People today use straws because they are convenient. When we are presented with a straw at a restaurant, we do not think about whether we should use the straw, it is our natural instinct to use it because it is there. Many restaurants have put a ban on using plastic straws, but they do give them out if customers ask for one. Consumers can have a drink without a straw, but if there is a group of our population that cannot consume a drink without using one, there are alternatives to a plastic straw such as glass, metal, paper, etc. In some countries such as Vietnam, plastic straws have been entirely replaced with bamboo straws (Jwyanza Hobson). While there are many other alternatives, many businesses in the Eastern Asian countries have decided to start using baby bamboo shoots instead. Restaurants have realized they want to start using this alternative for straws rather than glass, metal, and paper straws because of bamboo’s beneficial factors to our planet, and the impact plastic waste has on the planet. Bamboo is considered number one in renewable resources on our planet and companies who have started using bamboo shoots as straws have loved the new change for many reasons, but one being that baby bamboo shoots are a perfect diameter and shape for a straw. The shape a bamboo shoot naturally grows into allows it to stay untreated and safe for consumers (Urban Vegan). There is no need for reshaping or using toxic chemicals or techniques to make the bamboo shoots into a straw form, whereas with glass, metal, paper, and plastic, a mechanical process needs to occur to form the material into a straw shape. Along with its perfect diameter, bamboo is also a quick growing plant which allows for it to be cut down and reproduced quickly. Naturally, bamboo can grow up to 1-4 inches a day, and in around a week and a half, each bamboo shoot can be made into a straw. During the process of growing, bamboo produces a lot of oxygen, which is extremely helpful to our earth (Climate Central). By using a plant as a product such as a straw, not only are we introducing our society to something new, but we are also helping the earth receive oxygen.
Using a material such as bamboo is a unique way to make straws. Even though few restaurants in the United States use bamboo for straws, they should consider bringing it into their work lives because of how beneficial bamboo is to our world. Considering how many people in our society look for ways to better our environment and cut down on toxic products and materials, restaurants who use environmentally friendly and safe products are more likely to gain popularity for their business. When customers see that a restaurant is using a straw made out of bamboo rather than a cheap and toxic plastic, most of them would go crazy for it. Today, many companies are going out of business due to their lack of consumer business, but if a company can hop on the bandwagon and try something new for their restaurants, they would get a lot more business and happy customers. Not only will bamboo straws help a restaurants business, but they also will expand to other parts of our society. Consumers all around the world have heard about the tons of plastic waste going into our oceans, and seeing how many restaurants are beginning to ban plastic straws may help consumers take action in their lives. Families might even start buying bamboo straws off shopping websites such as Amazon, or in stores, and by doing so, families would be making a positive impact on the world while helping spread the word of a safer and environmentally friendly product as well as lower their carbon footprint. Having consumers be aware of what is going on in the world will allow them to start making wise choices in the future about the products they are purchasing, and having restaurants use this alternative straw will help our society begin to see right from wrong.
To produce a plastic straw, manufacturers say they use a resin called polypropylene to string together molecules of a propylene gas. Polypropylene is “a synthetic resin that is a polymer of propylene” (Made How). After many chemical cycles of melting and shaping this synthetic resin, a straw is made. This process is poisonous to the air we breathe and to the land we live on. Not only is this process toxic to humans, but it is poisonous to animals as well. This process pollutes the air with the machinery it requires, but it also produces a product that cannot be reused or recycled, meaning that it will eventually get dumped into our land and oceans and never be decomposed of. Once a straw is made, it can take an estimated time of 200 years or more to decompose into smaller pieces. Decomposed or not, there are over 100,000 ocean animals dying every year because of these plastic straws (One Green Planet). Due to this horrific outcome, many companies have decided to go another path with straws to help save ocean animals. Luckily, today, we have many people who love to find new and adventurous ways to consume their food and drinks, and having an alternative straw material such as bamboo is a great way to get today’s millennials into an earth friendly trend. A trend such as this one will end up doing more than helping an Instagram picture look artistic, it will help many ocean animals, as well as humans, live in a less polluted environment. Along with bamboo being great for a millennial trend, many people today look for products that are Organic, safe to use, and good for our environment, so this will boost the bamboo straw’s popularity and bring change to straws in general. Less plastic waste in our oceans means fewer animals dying from straws every year.
While there are some consumers and companies that say plastic straws should be banned entirely, there are others who think a plastic straw is fine because they are quick and easy. A question one may ask themselves is “Why should we change to a different straw material when we have been using plastic straws for decades and they work fine?” An answer to this would be that plastic straws are not fine. There are many wrongs about plastic straws, and the biggest one is that we use it for fun but then it is thrown out in a way that causes harm to our planet and the animals on it. Wouldn’t it be better to have a straw that allowed people to have fun drinking a beverage as well as allowing animals to live their lives without a straw invading their body? Most would say it would be better. That being said, I think bamboo straws are a better option for restaurants because they do not contribute to the plastic waste in our oceans, nor do they contribute to the toxic air pollution. While many people are against using bamboo straws or any different material because they are used to having plastic straws, it should be highly recommended for use in restaurants. As someone that might not be supportive towards changing from plastic straws, they could say that importing bamboo shoots into the United States is a more expensive alternative to a plastic straw, but if you think about it, bamboo can be grown in some southeastern parts of the United States as well as indoors (Bennett). Growing bamboo in the United States would mean there would be no transportation needed between countries that would be causing more air and ocean pollution. Something people are afraid of is that bamboo straws will be more expensive, but most people are not aware of the fact there are millions of dollars that are being spent cleaning our oceans from plastic straws and the production of them, and the alternative bamboo straw will be cheaper in the end. There will be no harm or clean up from a bamboo straw, and companies would be buying straws less often, because bamboo is reusable, which means in the end, they will be saving more money with bamboo straws than plastic. With all the benefits from bamboo, using straws made from this material will not only help the planet in many ways, but it will start a string of change for many businesses. For example, as a protest, McDonald’s locations in the U.K. have been starting to put a ban on plastic straws (EDF). The company has decided to take a stand against plastic straws because they see how much harm they bring to our environment and animals, and by doing so, many other restaurants have gotten on board with the ban against plastic straws. For a company such as McDonald’s, who is known for contributing a lot to the many kinds of waste in our environment, this is a strong stand they are taking. By only giving out straws to customers who ask for one, they are slowly helping our oceans get clean and standing up for a cause that will be reaching out to many other restaurants. It is just a matter of time until more restaurants decide to join the plastic straw ban and help our oceans get rid of straws.
With many factors contributing to our earth dying, plastic waste is one of the biggest. A straw, which is a useless item in our day to day lives, is one of the most destructive items in our oceans. Plastic straws are made to be decomposed in a compost facility, not
an ocean. Although straws are a small part of the plastic waste that is put into our oceans, removing straws from our daily lives is a good first step to help reduce the amount of plastic waste not only in oceans but on land as well. Boycotting companies who produce plastic straws or simply asking for a drink without a straw at a restaurant is also a good way to help clean them up from our oceans and land. Even though an earth friendly alternative to a straw will help our oceans cleanup from straw pollution, there will still be straws swimming around for many years after it is thrown away. Using bamboo shoots for straws will not only help our oceans and animals, but they will help boost a restaurants’ popularity if their customers know the products being used are beneficiary to their planet. If restaurants and other businesses switch to bamboo, then the amount of straw pollution in our oceans that is killing our ocean animals would decrease drastically over the years. Whether it means using bamboo straws or no straws at all, a simple change will help our environment in many ways. Companies all around the world are standing up for banning plastic straws so they do not end up in our oceans or making our air more unbreathable. One thing to remember is that plastic straws are not “fine”, in fact, there is nothing fine to them. With the amount of machinery needed to make a plastic straw, using earth friendly alternatives will allow humans to help the earth but also get what we want from it in a less harmful way. Many consumers are afraid that switching from plastic straws will strip our society of creativity when in reality using a naturally grown material will be more creative than a chemically processed one. As we all know, straws can come in different shapes and patterns, but the great thing about bamboo straws is that no straw is the same as the next, meaning that our straw creativity will still live on. So, in other words, using an alternative material that is better for our earth and something that can be reused is a safer option for us and the animals living with us, as well as being a safer option for our restaurants and facilities.