Straws are just for Suckers!

As I was sitting at my desk thinking of what to write I found myself staring at my trash can. In it I notice that there were two paper cups from the Varsity with plastic straws inside them. I thought about it and realized yeah the paper cup will degrade but the straws that I have will never be recycled. Then I thought about how unneccessary a straw is to all of us. Do we reall y need a straw? of course not, all of us can just do away with the plastic lid while we are at it and save a straw as well and just sip our drinks.

Most drinks from places like Varsity or Octagon offers straws to put in your drinks. It is strange that they offer straws when you could just take the plastic top off of the drink forgo the plastic straw and just sip your drink rather than sucking it through a straw. These straws can even be recycled, although there is no container and all of the straws used at Elon end up in a landfill. Even though a straw is a seemingly small drop in the ocean of plastic garbage (or island of garbage) it is small steps like these that help people start to take the first steps to help out the environment. Sometimes it takes something as small as not using a straw that starts people on the route to becoming concious about the decisions they make and how they may affect our environment. A plastic straw is a baby step on the road to awareness.

Also, plastic straws are not always needed. If a straw is vital to some people there are reusable plastic straws that one can buy almost anywhere. Some restaurants are also starting to use paper rather than plastic straws which although they are more expensive helps out the environment because the paper biodegrades much more easily and is cleaner than plastic. Below are some steps to stop plastic in a bigger and more effective way.

Less Plastic Tips

We can all do our part!

Note: This blog is being posted early and does not apply until April 2nd.

-Danny McGeough