Can an Iced Peppermint Mocha Save the Oceans this Holiday Season?

About: Is Starbuck’s strawless lid movement actually helping the oceans?

With the holiday season right around the corner, everyone will be rushing to Starbucks to snag a holiday drink (I know I will be!). What if, despite the cold weather, we wanted to get an iced drink? But after watching that heartbreaking video of the sea turtle who got a straw stuck up her nose you feel super guilty about using a straw. Don’t worry! With Starbuck’s new strawless lids there’s no need for straws!

Here’s the catch, those strawless lids look like they are made of plastic, and lots of plastic. Doesn’t that kinda defeat the purpose? After all, we do want less, not more, plastic in the ocean.

So, let’s think about it.

While looks can be deceiving, in this case they are not. The new lids look like they are made out of more plastic than straws, and they are. After hearing this you’re probably scratching your head wondering “Well, aren’t these fancy new lids just for aesthetics? They are causing more plastic to be dumped into the oceans.”

It’s important to give you guys some backstory at this point. PLASTIC STRAWS CANNOT BE RECYCLED! Due to their small size, recycling plants can’t sort through them because they fall between the cracks on the conveyer belt. As a result, plastic straws will end up in the ocean. Why is this a problem? Well, as it turns not only do Americans use five million straws per day, but plastic straws are also one of the top five most common forms of trash found on the coastline!

Although you can’t recycle straws, the new Starbuck’s strawless lids are 100% recyclable!

Now, if you’re a true skeptic chances are that you are still doubting the helpfulness of the strawless lid movement, and are still thinking it is a publicity stunt. This is because you’re probably up to date on your plastic pollution facts. According to National Geographic, plastic straws only make up 0.025% of the plastic in the ocean.

Even if we eliminate plastic straws completely, we still haven’t even scratched the surface of fixing the threat plastic poses to our oceans. But we have to start somewhere, right?

And even if plastic straws make up a small amount of ocean pollution, Starbuck’s strawless lids movement is sparking change. They are leading the way for companies to become eco-friendlier. Not only that, but they are also effectively bringing awareness to a problem that is far too often ignored.

Starbucks has even committed $10 million to get rid of the oil-based plastic liner of their coffee cups for warm drinks! Check out the link for more information here.

Many companies are now trying to promote eco-friendly products as well. McDonald plans to start testing plastic straw alternatives. Airlines, such as Alaska and American Airlines, have replaced the plastic straws and stir picks with recyclable alternatives. In addition to this, the Marriott hotels and the Hilton are now using recyclable straws! Not to mention the fact that whole cities are now starting to ban plastic straws!

In response to Seattle’s city-wide plastic straw ban, Greenpeace’s Kate Melges states that:

“It’s taking a stand on plastic pollution… and really taking a stand on what needs to happen, a ban on all single-use plastic products”

So maybe instead of criticizing this strawless movement, we should be using it as a launching pad to allow us to create greater change. We won’t become a plastic free world overnight. This is why ocean conservatories are viewing the movement to ban plastic straws as a great starting point to reaching the final goal of being plastic free.

If you haven’t seen the video that sparked the strawless movement, then you can check it out here.

Citations:

Gasper, C. (2018, October 18). Why Plastic Straws are Bad. Retrieved November 5, 2018, from https://www.healthiguide.com/lifestyle/why-plastic-straws-are-bad

Gibbens, S. (2018, July 06). A Brief History of How Plastic Straws Took Over the World. Retrieved November 5, 2018, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/news-plastic-drinking-straw-history-ban/

Recyclebank. (2016, November 15). What’s So Bad About Plastic Straws? Retrieved November 5, 2018, from https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/column/because-you-asked/what-s-so-bad-about-plastic-straws

The Be Straw Free Campaign (U.S. National Park Service). (2018, July 18). Retrieved November 5, 2018, from https://www.nps.gov/articles/straw-free.htm