Paper Straws: Consumerism’s Answer to the Environment
Brandon Choi
March 28th, 2022
March 28th, 2022
Over the last decade, a number of states in the U.S passed legislation outlawing the use of disposable plastic straws and bags. As such, major corporations such as Starbucks and McDonald’s have taken steps to become publicly recognized as “eco-friendly” by replacing their plastic straws with paper straws. However, the true environmental impact of this replacement is questionable. Replacing a utensil with a paper alternative does not detract from the million other sources of companies’ carbon emissions. Does replacing disposable waste with slightly more biodegradable disposable waste make a dent in the world’s waste problem? The answer is yes, but paper straws are neither a sustainable option nor a particularly green one.
Indeed, paper straws are more environmentally friendly than plastic ones. For the most part, they’re easily degradable and don’t negatively affect marine life in the way that plastic straws do. By changing to paper straws, there will certainly be less plastic waste in the ocean. This is a positive step in preserving the environment, but there is still a long way to go for environmental changes to truly occur. If anything, switching to paper straws is an attempt to solve a small portion of a much larger issue of waste mismanagement. Plastic straws account for only 0.025% of the plastic waste dumped into the ocean each year. Companies such as McDonald’s have much larger sources of waste such as the environmentally-destructive meat industry.
Moreover, the production of paper straws is still harmful for the environment. Paper production requires the destruction of carbon sinks such as forests, which causes mass carbon emissions. Additionally, the carbon emissions of trucks delivering these short-lived paper tubes to cafes and franchise restaurants must be considered. The environmental impact is still there—just because paper straws are biodegradable does not necessarily mean that they will degrade. Since most paper straws are dumped in landfills, which are specifically designed to prevent decomposition, they end up adding on to the mass waste pileup.
Paper straws are hardly any better than plastic straws, and it additionally creates the veneer of environmentally-friendly behavior. The consumer feels self-satisfied when they “help” the environment. However, research suggests that “using a green alternative provides people with ‘moral license’ to continue to behave badly, or even to behave worse” (Lowery). “Green products” have been employed by companies to justify a consumerist and wasteful culture. As long as the products being used are slightly better for the environment, consumers believe it is still reasonable to waste single-use straws.
Switching to paper is merely a performative gesture. It’s toning the wildfire down to a slow burn rather than a raging inferno. It does nothing to tackle the larger issue which is the amount of waste created from disposable goods.
While McDonalds and Starbucks have boasted about their “environmental awareness” by replacing their plastic straws, they fail to reduce any of their other massive carbon emissions. They fail to address, or willfully neglect, the bigger problem of consumer wastefulness. National policy such as a carbon tax and cutting down on meat production would bear much more fruitful results in helping the environment. Instead of conforming to corporate eco-consumerism, forgoing straws altogether or using reusable cups would truly have an environmental impact.
Sources
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/paper-straws-wont-stop-climate-change/596302/.
Indeed, paper straws are more environmentally friendly than plastic ones. For the most part, they’re easily degradable and don’t negatively affect marine life in the way that plastic straws do. By changing to paper straws, there will certainly be less plastic waste in the ocean. This is a positive step in preserving the environment, but there is still a long way to go for environmental changes to truly occur. If anything, switching to paper straws is an attempt to solve a small portion of a much larger issue of waste mismanagement. Plastic straws account for only 0.025% of the plastic waste dumped into the ocean each year. Companies such as McDonald’s have much larger sources of waste such as the environmentally-destructive meat industry.
Moreover, the production of paper straws is still harmful for the environment. Paper production requires the destruction of carbon sinks such as forests, which causes mass carbon emissions. Additionally, the carbon emissions of trucks delivering these short-lived paper tubes to cafes and franchise restaurants must be considered. The environmental impact is still there—just because paper straws are biodegradable does not necessarily mean that they will degrade. Since most paper straws are dumped in landfills, which are specifically designed to prevent decomposition, they end up adding on to the mass waste pileup.
Paper straws are hardly any better than plastic straws, and it additionally creates the veneer of environmentally-friendly behavior. The consumer feels self-satisfied when they “help” the environment. However, research suggests that “using a green alternative provides people with ‘moral license’ to continue to behave badly, or even to behave worse” (Lowery). “Green products” have been employed by companies to justify a consumerist and wasteful culture. As long as the products being used are slightly better for the environment, consumers believe it is still reasonable to waste single-use straws.
Switching to paper is merely a performative gesture. It’s toning the wildfire down to a slow burn rather than a raging inferno. It does nothing to tackle the larger issue which is the amount of waste created from disposable goods.
While McDonalds and Starbucks have boasted about their “environmental awareness” by replacing their plastic straws, they fail to reduce any of their other massive carbon emissions. They fail to address, or willfully neglect, the bigger problem of consumer wastefulness. National policy such as a carbon tax and cutting down on meat production would bear much more fruitful results in helping the environment. Instead of conforming to corporate eco-consumerism, forgoing straws altogether or using reusable cups would truly have an environmental impact.
Sources
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/paper-straws-wont-stop-climate-change/596302/.
