The last straws

The movement to ban plastic straws was wrong in so many ways that it becomes interesting, as well as infuriating.

I know about the straw in the sea turtle's nose. I am not a fan of that. However, it was repeated many times that straws are only responsible for .03 percent of plastic waste, while fishing nets make up over forty percent of that waste. You know all those inspiring videos of divers freeing whales and beach goers freeing a giant manta ray from nets? Those happen because not only is that the bulk of the waste, but because by design it is something that entangles ocean life. No one has gotten excited about nets. I suppose it's because no celebrities have.

(There are people working on it. Here's one story: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/heather-koldeway-explorer-nets-plastic-philippines-ocean-culture/

I really have nothing against celebrities promoting causes. Any influence you have should be used for good. To really do good, though, advance thought can really elevate the whole thing.


I have one friend who keeps a collapsible reusable straw with her, and specifies not wanting a straw when she orders drinks. She does not need any ban to do that. Lots of people who care deeply about that could do that without a ban.

Of course, that doesn't do anything about plastic cups and lids. Interestingly, drinking carbonated beverages through a straw limits the negative impact on teeth (probably the only reason my sisters still have theirs). There could be a lot to be said health-wise about limiting going to places that use plastic containers (often fast food places) and drinking pop, but okay, if we are not changing that, limiting straw use is one step toward a .03 percent decrease in plastic waste in the oceans.

I am still not against any of that, until the consensus becomes that not enough people will participate voluntarily (probably true), and so we need to make it mandatory (more questionable), and that effort ignores the voices of people with disabilities who say they need straws.

I know to some extent our lack of imagination on disabilities makes things worse; we picture a person in a wheelchair who has unencumbered use of their hands and throat and lungs and surely they don't rely on that straw. But any limited mobility could affect the ability to move the cup, various conditions affecting swallowing can also be a factor, and liquid intake matters. Lots of things can come into play.

For example, if your immune system is compromised, the reusable straws don't just need to be sort of clean. Assuming the dishwasher works, how many straws do you need to have between loads? One person I am thinking of who would not have been able to drink without a straw would have also had a hard time opening up and inserting the a reusable straw. Sometimes there is someone to help, but that's not guaranteed. Paper straws don't hold up well in hot beverages, but they also may not do well when spending a longer time in the beverage, which could be an issue for someone needing to drink slowly.

Okay, previously, I never thought about a straw as a life-saving necessity. You can call that able-bodied privilege; I haven't experienced it and I don't have to think about it. I only even know anything about it now because of seeing other people talking about it. I learned a lot by listening.

The sad part then becomes the passionate reluctance that so many others showed to listening. They were so sure that their solutions for a problem they never thought about were adequate. They were so skeptical about the possibility of there being needs other than their own. Then it is hard to know whether it is more infuriating that people can be so dismissive of the lived experience of others, or that they are doing it for an only .03 percent reduction in waste. I love turtles, but doesn't it make more sense to think bigger?

Except that the idea that caught fire was something that primarily hurts a marginalized group, whereas the ideas that would be more effective would involve asking businesses to do things differently, so really there was no chance it was going to go any other way.

(There are some things worth thinking about in there.)

So I want to go back to those last thoughts from yesterday's post. Imagine being told by someone that they would kill themselves if they had your life. Imagine the state saying that you can't have the pain meds that work for you, but assisted suicide is legal. Added on that, imagine people wanting to take away something that allows you to survive in order to make a tiny dent in a problem, but you are the one who's unreasonable.

One of the other things I saw in that thread about the suicide compliments (for lack of a better term), was someone who works in customer service, but they are in a chair due to a disability. Recently some customers were really nasty about it, but more common are the "friendly" jokes about sitting down on the job. All the time.

Forget whether you have anyone that you care about that has a disability. Forget whether age, disease, or injury will at some point change that. Is this good enough? Is this a way to treat people?

And if you can't care about other people, how much do you really care about the Earth?