Why Banning Plastic Straws isn't helping the Oceans
Well at long last some truth. For all you Climate Nazi's who were smitten with Climate Barbie's zeal in banning our beloved straws, the truth about them and the danger your straw from Tim's will end up in an Ocean.
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But if you take a quick look at where all this plastic is coming from, you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that banning straws at North American restaurants was pretty much the least effective way to address this problem.
So where is the ocean plastic coming from? Two places. One: Ghost gear. This is fishing gear that has fallen off of commercial boats, and then wanders the ocean needlessly killing wildlife until it disintegrates. Up to 46 per cent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is ghost gear .
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See, if I use a plastic straw at a fast food joint, when I’m done with it that plastic straw goes in a garbage bin which is then picked up by civil servants who take it to different civil servants who bury it in the ground and cover it with clay. Notice the lack of any ocean in that equation. And that’s basically the program throughout Europe and North America: Unless you’re a putz who’s literally chucking your slushie in the sea, your straw’s final resting place is well-removed from any unfortunate sea turtles.
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It’s why, according to a 2017 study , 95 per cent of the world’s ocean plastic comes from just 10 rivers: Eight in Asia and two in Africa.The group Ocean Conservancy has similarly estimated that most ocean plastic comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
The straw that got stuck in that sea turtle’s nose? It almost certainly came from an Asian community with bad waste management.
But here’s the good news: We actually know how to fix both ghost gear and poor waste practices in the developing world. With ghost gear, you set up buyback programs with fishers to disincentivize them from simply chucking broken gear overboard. As for poor waste management, countries like Canada are actually really, really good at safely managing garbage. And the bang for the buck is huge: Kick a few million dollars towards a dump project in Indonesia, and you’re instantly diverting thousands of tonnes of plastic from the ocean.
watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vV_DWqomks
