People walking down the street drinking coffee with ice in a plastic container and with a straw. Other sipping a drink in a bar with a straw. Both scenes, ubiquitous in the US, can have the days numbered. The mecca of capitalism and consumerism is experiencing a heated debate to prohibit plastic straws in food stores.
In July, Seattle will become the first major city to veto the use of plastic cutlery and straws in restaurants to be replaced by paper or biodegradable ones. Other locations, such as New York or Miami Beach, have taken steps in the same direction.
Almost every week, a new company, such as the Sea World resort chain or the Bon Appétit food chain, announces its own ban. Or a new celebrity joins the cause, increasingly viral, against that material.
The objective is to reduce the alarming pollution in the oceans. If the current pace is maintained, there could be more plastic than fish in 2050. The debate is also perceived on the street. In the center of Washington, there is a huge poster of National Geographic on the facade of a building with a cracking: “Planet or plastic?” Recently, came to the city an exhibition.
The result of an agreement between the European Union and the US about plastic pollution. He warned, for example, that there are about 5.25 trillion particles floating in the water, that they enter the bodies of animals, end up on the beaches and threaten our health.
In the US, for now, the crusade against plastic straws is headed by local governments and companies. It is far from the ambitious EU plan against the material. And there are notable absences in the current debate in the first world power.
Starbucks, which every day uses an infinity of plastic in its coffee containers are reluctant to do in the US what was agreed in Europe eliminate straws and plastic cutlery. The shareholders of McDonald’s also rejected in May to veto the straws in the US, but shortly after rectified and announced a study on its replacement by paper materials.
Ewan Morley is the Lead Editor for Dailybio News. Ewan has been working for Many Large Online Publications for nearly a decade and has published his articles in many prints and digital publications including NPR, LA Times and New York Post. When Ewan is not busy writing he enjoys reading.
