Jan 3, 2020
Before You Buy Another Reusable Straw, Read this
Is your arsenal of fashionable, reusable straws helpful?
The sustainability market has steadily begun its worldwide takeover. New York-based Nielsen forecasts the market to reach somewhere between $142.4 billion and $150.1 billion by 2021. Consumers are hungry for products with green labels, organic materials, and re-usability to gain as fodder for their need to save the planet. But is your arsenal of fashionable, reusable straws helpful?
According to Stanford experts, “plastic straws are only a tiny fraction of the problem — less than 1 percent.” Eliminating plastic straws can be considered “low-hanging fruit” — the easiest goal to obtain.
It makes them feel off the hook for the impending doom of the planet.
Now it’s true plastic straws are disastrous for ocean life and are perfect for highlighting our throwaway culture — but does it change consumers into honorable captain planets?
Experts say buying items like reusable straws give consumers “moral license”. It allows companies and their customers to feel they have done their part. It makes them feel off the hook for the impending doom of the planet. This is a HUGE problem. It means reusable straws are feeding into a ravaging issue — consumer habits. Let’s go back to our throwaway culture.
We are obsessed with buying.
The Center on Everyday Lives of Families (CELF) decided that we are living in “the most materially rich society in global history, with light-years more possessions per average family than any preceding society.” We are obsessed with buying. Imagine telling a society that has too many things that you have products that can save the world. The sustainability market is knowingly feeding into the consumer’s need to buy which is contributing to the material saturation in an already over-cluttered world.
Why are we buying products to save the world when we already have the power to make a change?
If you are an able-person who can function through daily life without the use of a straw, do you need that reusable straw? Could you not just take the lid off the cup and drink? People need to be honest with themselves about the luxuries they are buying.
$30 reusable paper towels and $35 reusable utensils sets?
Throwing out every single item in your household to replace it with a more sustainable one is still wasting.
The utensils you’ve been using to eat dinner at home for the past 10 years can easily be taken with you to work. The old shirts you never wear can easily be cut into strips and used to wipe up that mess in the kitchen. Throwing out every single item in your household to replace it with a more sustainable one is still wasting.
Reusing instead of buying will lower your waste output more than obtaining every new sustainable trend on the market. Think how much energy, packaging, and waste was used and produced to get those reusable straws back on the shelves of your local Target?
Just to be clear, reusable straws are not the enemy. Consumerism is. We need to fight climate change by ending bad consumer habits, not feeding it. Think before you buy.
For some tips on how to be more sustainable in a DIY fashion, check out the following resources for tips, projects, and inspirations:
- Spoonflower: 16 Eco-Friendly Projects for a Zero-Waste Home
- Eco Warrior Princess: DIY Eco Essentials: How to Make Your Own Green Cleaning Products
- Wellness Mama: 7 Simple DIY Beauty Products to Make at Home
- 5 Minute Crafts VS: 42 Smart Re-purposing Ideas
