Plastic straws are one of the most useless things in the whole entire world. While they make drinking out of glasses somewhat convenient, they are really inconvenient for sea turtles. Straws made out of plastic cannot be recycled which means that they have to get thrown in the trash. When straws are thrown out and make their way to the ocean, where a lot of trash is dumped, they can get stuck in the nostrils of sea turtles.
Every day in the United States, 500,000,000 plastic straws are used. Think about that number for a moment. Now think about how many of those straws could end up in one of the Earth's oceans. Every time a plastic straw finds its way to the ocean it can become a hazard to a sea turtle.
The decline of sea turtles can be very harmful to the ocean's ecosystem. They play a vital role in maintaining the food chain of the ocean, especially keeping the seagrass in the ocean at the right level. If seagrass becomes too high it can mess up life on the ocean floor and in reefs.
Sea turtles also play a huge role in maintaining the vegetation of dunes. When they lay eggs, the nutrients of those eggs go back into the vegetation of dunes meaning the whole beach becomes much more of a livable habitat to the animals that live there. Dunes, as you may know, are constantly eroding because of human presence on beaches. If those dunes go away the beach ecosystem will be ruined.
It is so easy to not use plastic straws. Starbucks has even taken the initiative to switch to lids that do not require a straw to drink coffee amongst other drinks. It does not take a lot to just sip a drink without a lid, it also means not putting another sea turtle in danger.
If you do happen to use a plastic straw, do not recycle it! Make sure before you throw it in the trash that you cut it into smaller pieces because it will have less of a chance to harm a sea turtle in smaller pieces. There are also alternatives to plastic straws such as paper or metal straws that you can purchase to use over and over again.
Since we are beings of Earth, we should constantly be thinking about what our impact will be. We should leave nothing but footprints.
