• Evotech@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Yeah let’s not do anything because something else is worse.

    In just the U.S. alone, one estimate suggests 500 million straws are used every single day. One study published earlier this year estimated as many as 8.3 billion plastic straws pollute the world’s beaches. In the U.K., at least 4.4 billion straws are estimated to be thrown away annually.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Imagine all of those straws in a single pile. 3000 tons of straws.

      Now imagine a pile 200 times larger. That’s what the fishing industry is doing.

      We’re moving sand piles while they’re building pyramids.

      • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        The fishing industry is a fucking eldritch abomination. It puts everything else to shame. Fun fact, we kill roughly a hundred billion land animals for food every year across the world. But if you want an estimate on how many animals we kill total, you can just ignore that entirely because the answer is around 1 to 3 trillion fish, depending on how you estimate it.

    • Azteh@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      That means an average U.S. citizen uses 1,46 straws a day. What the fuck are you guys doing? Compare that to the U.K. where it’s 0,18 by your own numbers.

      • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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        7 months ago

        We use them as single shot spit ball launchers. It’s common to settle disputes lining up like a napoleonic army and blasting at each other. We need gun violence, but don’t always want someone to die.

      • Asafum@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        I’m going to guess fast food is a large portion of that here in the US. Idk how other countries serve fast food, but here every “meal” comes with a drink, and that drink not only has a plastic straw but also a plastic lid the straw goes into.

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          After opening the plastic container with my pancakes in it, I open three individually plastic wrapped teaspoons of butter and one plastic tub of high fructose corn syrup to pour onto them. I begin eating with my plastic knife and fork, before getting thirsty and reaching for my plastic cup with a plastic lid. I throw the plastic straw that they gave me away, and pull out my trusty stainless steel straw. I am saving the environment one breakfast at a time.

    • ILikeCats@iusearchlinux.fyi
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      7 months ago

      Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing. You’re wasting time and money and not solving any problem in the process.

      You also have a nice distraction while the actual source of the problem is getting worse.

      UK has banned plastic straws in 2020 and guess what. Nothing has changed. We’re still drowning in plastic. UK doesn’t dump plastic waste in the ocean so the straws you see on the beaches aren’t from here anyway. Never were. No problem was solved