What is the safest Straw for you and the environment? It’s not plastic or paper straws.
Paper straws have been sold as an eco-friendly answer to plastic straws. Based on a European study, the truth is 90% of paper straws tested and 75% of plastic straws have synthetic chemicals known as ploy and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Rounding out the other types of straws that contain PFAS are Bamboo (80%), Glass straws (40%) and steel straws with 0%.
The chemicals can stay within the human body for years. However, there is low risk for health issues due to the infrequent use of straws.
Plastic Straws end up in landfills and often end up in the oceans which can be harmful to marine life. Plastic straws cannot be recycled, and plastic does not go away. It breaks up into micro-plastics which birds and sea-life mistake for food. When the fish eat microplastics, we eventually eat the fish. One out of three fish have micro-plastics in their stomachs.
Best Solution
- Don’t use straws at all.
- Use steel reusable straws.
- Glass Straws in the worse case scenario. They are easy to break.
More than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals die from plastic pollution every year.
There is now 5.25 trillion large and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean.
There is an estimated 75 to 199 million tons of plastic waste currently in our oceans, with a further 33 billion pounds of plastic entering the marine environment every single year.
Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic makes their way into our oceans.
The world produces 381 million tonnes of plastic waste yearly – this is set to double by 2034.
2nd Picture is removing a straw from a sea turtles nose
States like California and New York have banned Plastic Straws.