Plastic pipes will soon be extinct in the world?

Every day, Americans throw away about 500 million plastic straws, enough to surround the Earth's radius twice, or fill 125 buses. That means an average American uses 35,000 straws in their lives, according to the Strawless Ocean marine campaign.

Across the world, plastic straws are the sixth most popular waste, according to Litterati, an application that identifies and maps waste types, and is among the top 10 recyclables commonly found on large stores. Positive, according to the environmental organization Ocean Conservacy.

Made of fossil fuels, plastic straws are rarely recycled because they are too small and can be made from a variety of plastics. While having a small utility, plastic straws pose a major pollution problem for the world: Every year about 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans.

Use straws or not?

Plastic straws are now the target of an increasing movement calling on people all over the world to stop using them. One of the first campaigns, Be Straw Free was launched in 2011 by 9-year-old boy Milo Cress.

"I noticed that whenever I order a drink at a restaurant, it comes with a straw, while I don't usually use them," Cress said - "This is a waste. The plastic is made from oil, a precious and limited resource. Is it really worthwhile to produce something that we only use in a few plays and throw it out? ".

Plastic straws contribute significantly to the pollution of the oceans.(Source: Pinterest).

Cress tried to suggest restaurants in Burlington, Vermont (USA), where he lived at that time, to stop offering straws to customers, instead giving customers a choice. Many restaurants have accepted this proposal and then this model has spread throughout the country. As a result, the number of straws used by these restaurants has decreased by 50-80%.

In 2015, a YouTube video featuring a scene made a fever in the online community and helped promote a campaign to stop smoking.

Plastic straws seem to be a small problem, but stopping using them helps to solve a big problem, says Adrian Grenier, who initiated the Strawless Ocean campaign.

"A plastic straw can be small, but stopping using it can help solve a bigger problem, it's plastic pollution, " said Ms. Grenier.

Ms. Grenier recently launched a new Internet campaign called StopSucking, which calls on people in many cities to not use or restrict the use of straws when ordering drinks.

The campaign recently helped Seattle save 2.3 million straws over a three-month period by persuading businesses and restaurants to switch to using recycled paper straws. . It is known that by the end of 2018, the city will officially issue a ban on the use of straws and plastic tools in the family.

Many replacements

The wave of opposition to using plastic straws has even spread to many other countries, including the United Kingdom (UK), where the government has a plan to ban all types of plastic waste. in 2042.

In 2017, the majority of Wetherspoons restaurant chains announced that they would replace plastic straws because he smoked paper. After this statement, many small restaurants and bars in the UK followed suit.

Making choices or substitutes for plastic straws instead of banning them immediately is an easily accepted trend in many places.

"There are many things that can replace plastic straws, while less damaging to the environment, wildlife and humanity," said Jackie Nunez, founder of The Last Plastic Straw campaign.

Currently, many people choose to use straws to drink water to prevent sugar or acid from damaging their teeth.

However, according to activists, there are many people who have started to use various types of straws that can be used many times such as glass tubes, tubes made of stainless steel, bamboo and many types of reusable tubes. other uses.