From Starbucks to Disney to the entire city of Seattle, you might be hearing a lot about bans on plastic straws in the news recently. You might find yourself asking, “Why are straws getting all this attention?” or “Why should my family care?”

The truth is that Americans use a lot of straws. 500 million straws every day to be exact! This is a problem because plastic straws are single use plastics, meaning they are used once and then thrown away. One straw used to enjoy your ice coffee or your child’s juice takes about 200 years to break down.

This wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the 8 million tons of plastic that goes into the ocean every year. A straw’s size and shape makes them especially dangerous to sea life where fish accidentally eat them and they get tangled up and kill other marine life.

Except for some people with medical needs, straws are not needed for drinking beverages. So out of all the trash we already create, straws are one of the easiest single use plastics to stop using in our lives.

Keeping our environment healthy is a huge part of keeping kids healthy. Think about opting out of the plastic straw next time or purchasing reusable metal straws for your family, instead. And while you’re at it, remember those reusable grocery bags next time you go shopping, too! Our Earth and marine life will thank you!

Learn more here: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/plastic-straws-ocean-trash-environment/