If you have gone to a Starbucks recently, you’ve probably noticed their bright green straws have disappeared, with a “straw-less lid” taking its place. The Seattle-based coffee chain announced a plan to eliminate its plastic straws completely by 2020. Starbucks is just one of the many coffee shops, restaurants, and bars, that have followed the anti-straw movement, opting instead for more sustainable alternatives such as paper ones, or Starbucks’ straw-less lid. It’s a big win for anti-straw advocates, but is it really a win for the environment?
After a video of a sea turtle with a straw stuck in its nose went viral in 2015, the anti-straw movement really took off. Another big driver in the anti-straw movement was the proliferation of pictures of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” which many describe as a Texas-sized island of trash floating in the ocean. In reality, however, while oceanic debris is a huge concern for marine life, it is important to note that there are really no scientifically sound estimates for the size of these garbage patches, and NOAA refrains from referring to it as a “garbage patch,” fearing that image is misleading, and instead compares it to “flecks of pepper floating in a bowl of soup.” While a “Texas-sized island of trash,” sure is an effective flashy phrase employed by the media, it is important to not misrepresent an issue that carries grave consequences for our future.
Activists and media outlets like to claim that Americans use 500 million plastic straws every day. However, the source of this statistic actually turns out to be the result of a survey conducted by nine-year-old Milo Cress in his 2011 campaign “Be Straw Free.” Distinguished news outlets including The New York Times, National Geographic, and the National Park Service have reported this figure, validating the foundation the anti-straw movement stands on.
It is clear that up until now, the information the anti-straw movement has relied on is perhaps not very sound and credible. Admittedly, they did not have much information to rely on, as the garbage patch was not very well studied until now. A new study by Ocean Cleanup, published in Scientific Reports, set out to examine the contents of the patch.
So what is the patch really made of?
Microplastics make up 94 percent of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch. But this only amounts to eight percent of the 79,000 total metric tons. The study found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, challenging the globally agreed on statistic: 20 percent from fishing materials and 80 percent from land.
George Leonard, the chief scientist at the Ocean Conservancy stated, “The interesting piece is that at least half of what they’re finding is not consumer plastics, which are central to much of the current debate, but fishing gear.” These “ghostnets,” abandoned nylon plastic fishing nets that remain in the marine ecosystem for long periods of time, accidentally capture marine animals, such as whales, seals, sea birds, and fish, who are left strangled, suffocated, or injured by the plastic netting.
So what can we do?
Of course, ditching a plastic straw for a more sustainable option is highly encouraged as a great way to reduce the amount consumer-produced plastic in the ocean. However, targeting the 46 percent of oceanic debris made up of fishing materials should be of utmost importance. According to Healthy Seas, the nylon plastic nets that most fishermen use are easy to collect, reprocess, and reuse. Many companies have started to create products from recycled nets, including big name brands Adidas and Volcom. A company called Bureo works with fishermen to incentivize the recycling of these plastic nylon nets. Bureo sells recycled nets to create the blocks in the Jenga Oceam game, the first board game made from recycled fishing nets. Clearly, there are many creative options available for preventing the buildup of plastic fishing nets in the ocean, one only has to dispel the myth surrounding consumer plastic for this solution to gain traction.
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