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LIE PAPER STRAWS ARE A
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ver the past few years, there’s been an explosion in the sustainability movement. With climate change worsening, the state of the environment has risen to the forefront of politics, particularly those of Generation Z. It’s common to see people toting around reusable utensils, bags and especially metal straws. Straws, especially, have been a point of contention in the fight for the environment, as videos of sea turtles getting plastic straws stuck on them went viral, tugging on the heartstrings of a worldwide audience. A 2018 bill successfully restricted California restaurants from giving out single-use straws without customer request. Many people applauded the implementation of this new law, considering it a vital step to a more wastefree world and to help the animals affected by plastic pollution. With this came the boom of metal straws, a portable, reusable alternative to plastic straws to “save the turtles!” But of all plastic pollution, straws only account for approximately 0.025%, according to National Geographic in the article “A Brief History of How Paper Straws Took Over the World.” Still, paper straws soon emerged as an alternative to plastic, especially in restaurant scenes. Is the marketing true? Are they a helpful, meaningful step toward protecting our environment? Dr. Jacob Lanphere, professor of environmental science, says they may not be. “Paper straws are something that have been introduced in our economy in the last five years, and they are still causing problems because they are still single-use materials,” Lanphere says. “A lot of (the) time these materials can end up floating in the wind,
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A lot of (the) time these materials can end up floating in the wind, accumulating in other locations. Even though they are paper, they can still cause problems–such as land pollution. - Dr. Jacob Lanphere
(professor of environmental science)
accumulating in other locations. Even though they are paper, they can still cause problems, such as land pollution.” Lanphere also looked to the future. “Some longterm effects of paper straws haven’t been investigated, such as health effects,” Lanphere says. “We’re ingesting these papers filled with chemicals in them (in) the human body.” While an environmental standpoint is the easiest way to evaluate the pros and cons of the paper and metal straw boom, a less considered factor is the effect on the disabled population, who require the features offered by plastic straws to drink. As a disabled woman, this oversight has always struck close to my heart. However, my disability in particular doesn’t affect my ability to drink. However, the kaleidoscopic lens of my disability allows me to see that we are at the bottom of the totem pole when considered for potential problems in normalized innovations of society — we are underrepresented almost everywhere. Madison Lawson, 24-year-old disabled journalist whose work has appeared in Vogue, Teen Vogue, Allure, and Glamour, described her experiences with living after the quantity of accessible plastic straws began dwindling after California passed the 2018 bill. She lives with a rare form of muscular dystrophy called Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy (UCMD), an experience she wrote about in an oped for Teen Vogue called “Starbucks’ Elimination of Plastic Straws Is Bad for Disabled People.” Lawson said that after the plastic straw ban, many people dismissed the disabled community’s concerns about not having access to plastic straws. Paper
