Since the beginning of this year, as the world's major companies have joined the army of "rejecting plastic straws", plastic straws seem to have ushered in the biggest crisis since the 1960s.
Starbucks will phase out disposable plastic straws in 28,000 stores worldwide by 2020;
IKEA will gradually stop all disposable plastic products including plastic straws in stores by 2020;
KFC has discontinued plastic cup lids and plastic straws in 84 stores in Singapore;
McDonald's will begin in September this year, replacing plastic straws with paper straws in UK and Ireland stores;
Alaska Airlines will be one of the first airlines to phase out plastic straws and plastic stir bars;
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Although plastic straws account for only 0.025% of the 8 million tons of plastic products that flow into the ocean each year, why is the straw a focus of environmental war in recent years? Part of the reason is that compared to other plastic products that pollute the environment, For the most healthy people, the straw is indeed optional, and the habit of reducing or not using plastic straws will not have much impact on life.
In 1888, Stone Industrial, founded by Marvin Stone, applied for a patent on paper straws and began mass production. Since then, drinking water with straws has become a habit. Until the 1930s, Joseph Friedman created curved straws from his daughter. Inspired by the special process, the paper straw has the function of bending freely, and it does not affect the passage inside the straw, which further broadens the application of the straw in people's life.
Until the plastics industry swept, this curved paper straw was almost popular throughout the United States. At that time, it was very popular to drink soda and milkshake with a straw. The hospital also highly recommended the use of this paper straw because the patient can easily lie Drinking drugs and water in bed.
After the popularity of plastic straws in the 1960s, plastic straws were mass produced and placed on the market as part of a number of "plastic disposables."
Plastic straws are discarded and do not degrade automatically, but are gradually broken down into pieces that are too small to be seen by the naked eye, then swallowed by marine organisms, and finally returned to the human body.
In addition, they may also pose a threat to marine life in other ways, from plankton to whales, which have died as a result of smoking plastic fragments.
At the enterprise level, in order to cope with the current public resistance to plastic products, some manufacturers have developed the habit of degrading plastic materials or biomass plastic materials, or shifting the production focus to other alternative products. These products are not "used and thrown" like disposable straws, but they are also self-degrading.
Steve Russell, vice president of the Plastics Industry Department of the American Chemistry Council, believes that it is unwise to issue bans on straws or any specific product, "too much attention to individual products may overlook more pressing issues, such as waste management." He also said: "For straws, the best practice at present is to get the consumers in need, but not the company.