The plastic straw bans were a mistake
Interesting reel from Lucy Biggers
The plastic straw bans were a mistake. If you knew me in the 20-teens, you know I made plastic straws my whole personality and pushed paper and reusable straws. There is nothing wrong with cutting down on your plastic use and decreasing polution, but these bans made no sense. They happened in wealthy areas like NYC and SF, where plastic pollution doesn’t end up in the oceans because there is modern waste infrastructure, and completely ignored the fact that 95% of this plastic waste entering our oceans comes from 10 rivers in Africa and Asia. And before you say, “Well, we send our plastic to Asia!” I also think that is a bad green policy that should end. We shouldn’t pretend to recycle our plastics and make other countries carry our waste burden to make ourselves feel better.