Skip a Straw; Save a Turtle

Splash! Another plastic straw landed in the ocean.  Since January 1st, 2020, there has been no more plastic straws at Daniel St. School. Plastic straws have been banned, because people forgot they were plastic and didn’t recycle them. More than 1,000,000 marine animals are dying each year because of plastic in the ocean. Did you know that a whopping 91% of the plastic we use are not recycled and instead ends up in landfills or in the ocean? There are so many things that  can be done in order to end plastic pollution. One of the main things we can do is recycle plastic waste. In the United States over 500,000,000 plastic straws are used a day.

On the other hand, paper straws cost more money than plastic straws. Paper straws cost 0.25 cents and plastic straws cost half a penny. Plastic straws are only made up of 0.03 of plastic waste in the ocean.  Metal straws are actually worse than plastic straws. The energy it takes to produce one metal straw takes the same amount of energy to produce 90 plastic straws. Judith Enck, a professor at Bennington College states, ”The public is eager to do something to protect the environment.” Here at Daniel St. we are doing our part by eliminating plastic straws at lunch.

Helping the animals in need is a must and we should start by recycling and working hard in order to achieve this goal!