How paper straws are saving the planet

As the world is becoming more and more environmentally friendly there are new inventive ideas emerging every day for saving waste. The latest trend on the eco-scene that is being heavily adopted is the use of paper straws.

What is so bad about plastic straws?
Firstly, plastic straws are not recyclable, meaning that large amounts of waste end up in landfills or oceans. The biggest waste patch is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which is reportedly twice the size of Texas. It may not look it on the surface, but it is because most of it ends up on the ocean floor. Since these plastic straws are not biodegradable, it can take up to 200 years for them to decompose.

This then has a domino effect on marine life as they often mistake it as food, and when they try to consume it, it can become lodged in their stomach. It is estimated that up to 71% of seabirds and 30% of turtles end up ingesting plastic to their stomachs.

Apart from affecting sea life, there is another reason as to why plastic straws are bad. It is because they release toxic chemicals when they start to break down which in turn pollutes the ocean waters.

The benefits of changing to paper straws
 
•    Safer for marine-life: of course, this is the first positive, but it is a major one as it can save the lives of many animals and maybe even prevent some species from going extinct. This is proven as paper straws are supposedly meant to breakdown within six months, which is a whole lot better than that of 200 years for a plastic straw.

•    Less time to decompose: linking to the previous benefit, paper straws only taking a short amount of time to decompose will be very beneficial for our oceans as it will also reduce the amount of toxic chemicals being released into the ocean waters.

•    They’re affordable: although plastic straws are cheaper, the rise of demand for paper straws is only going to increase the production meaning eventually the price will go down again even though they are already cheap enough as you can pick them up in bulk for as little as two pence each.

Businesses cutting out plastic
Many large-scale companies and businesses are cashing in on cutting out or limiting plastic straws. Some of these include Disney, Starbucks and McDonalds. This is a wake-up call to you and how you should be trying to limit how you use plastic on a day-to-say basis for your business.

Here at LSPS, recycling is of great importance to us and we help businesses and individuals all across Leicestershire to reduce the amount of their waste that ends up at landfill sites. Our Waste Transfer Station is open to traders and has an extensive range of state-of-the-art equipment.

To find out how about we can help with your waste disposal needs please contact us on 0800 083 7807 or visit our website for further information.