.product_section .product_form, .product_gallery { opacity: 1; } .multi_select, form .select { display: block !important; } .image-element__wrap { display: none; }

Isn't it just a plastic straw?

December 13, 2021 4 min read

BUT IS ONLY A PLASTIC STRAW

ABOUT THE SHORT USE OF A DISPOSABLE ITEM AND ITS DEVASTIC CONSEQUENCES

Every day 3 billion plastic straws are used worldwide and are usually thrown away after a few minutes . In contrast to plastic bags or coffee-to-go cups, the rule is in Germany much less awareness of what plastic straws do to our environment . In Germany alone, 40 billion disposable plastic straws are used every year. That's 1.3 plastic straws per head per day. They are comparatively small and only weigh a few grams how much plastic is that?

It's the compact size of plastic drinking straws that makes them so deadly to marine life.

ABOUT THE SHORT USE OF A DISPOSABLE ITEM AND ITS DEVASTIC CONSEQUENCES

It's the compact size of plastic drinking straws that makes them so deadly to marine life.

HOW TO GET PLASTIC STRAWS INTO OUR OCEANS

Every 7th item found on beaches and rivers is a disposable plastic straw. How can that actually be? Although plastic straws are made of polypropylene and are therefore actually recyclable, recycling machines cannot grasp the fine drinking tubes very well. Plastic drinking straws disrupt the recycling process, clog machines and can even destroy them.

So they are not recycled, but end up on the landfill and in waste incineration plants. Picked up garbage that reaches landfills often passes through several stations where the garbage is stored in the open air and can easily be blown away – e.g. at ports, i.e. directly on the water. As soon as they meet a body of water, it's time to go to the ocean terminus, even if it is hundreds of kilometers away.

Did you know that what you are sucking at is hundreds of millions of years old?

THE PLASTIC STRAW AND CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION

Like almost all types of plastic will Petroleum polypropylene manufactured. Incidentally, the crude oil we use today is 15,352,722,000 liters per year worldwide– originated hundreds of millions of years ago .

oil must be promoted, which is not just an expensive process, to major pollution leads. Fires, accidents and leaks regularly contaminate the air and water. The extraction methods are becoming more and more dangerous and polluting. The World Offshore Accident Database recorded more than 5,000 accidents from 1974-2004 for offshore companies.

THE PLASTIC STRAW
AND THE CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION

Did you know that what you are sucking at is hundreds of millions of years old?

PLASTIC IN THE MOUTH AND IN YOUR BODY

In acidic or alcoholic beverages the Dissolve plasticizer BPA bisphenol A from the strawen . The body confuses this with the female sex hormone estrogen. According to studies that can be too Cancer, diabetes and arrhythmias and impotence to lead.

“The mean level of bisphenol A in human blood is now higher than the concentration that can impair sexual development in mice.”

— bund.net

USED 5 MINUTES, 500 YEARS IN THIS WORLD

In addition, the short life of a plastic straw does not end when people take it after themselves Single use disposed of. Until the material has completely decomposed, up to 500 years pass away. Of course, during the transfer it does not disappear without a trace, but instead becomes Microplastics - microscopic small pieces of plastic that are often absorbed by birds and marine animals even faster and for fatal end of animals can lead.

ECOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVES TO 3,285,000 TONS OF PLASTIC WASTE

Even if you do without the plastic straw at home, we still get a lot of plastic straws in the gastronomy without even asking for it. In addition to the more ecological disposable alternatives such as drinking straws made of paper, corn starch or bamboo, the question of reusable, recyclable and alternatives suitable for gastronomy on. At HALM, we focus on sustainable Glass drinking straws : the test winner, with oursreusable straws in comparison.