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Specifically, I look at the minimal impact of plastic straws on ocean trash compared to other forms of garbage. The video also discusses how plastic straw bans are a form of eco-ableism in that eliminating plastic straws make the lives of people with disabilities much more complicated. As a result of the eco-ableism inherent in plastic straw bans, ridding whole cities of plastic straws could prove problematic.
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
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This video is sponsored by Skillshare.
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00:10
It’s 3,000 BCE, and it’s an unbearably hot day in Sumer, a civilization which thrived
00:22
in what is now known as southern Iraq.
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Under the bright sun, two Sumerians quench their thirst with a nice wheat beer.
00:31
But they’ve been having a problem.
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Their fermentation process often leaves some unwanted solid byproducts floating at the
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top of their drink that are hard to avoid.
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Luckily they found a solution: a straw.
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Crafted from bone, metal, or even organic materials like reed, Sumerians used the straw
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as a way to safeguard their sipping activities from bugs, grain husks, and any sort of sediment
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that may have happened to sneak into their drinks.
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Fast-forward thousands of years and straws are still very much a staple across the globe.
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But now these straws are plastic (and bendy).
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A fact to which many environmentalists take umbrage.
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So much so, that plastic straw bans have now been enacted in Vancouver, Seattle, as well
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as has been proposed by the European.
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Despite the recent passage of these bans, I’m curious about their effectiveness.
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Today, I want to figure out whether straw bans are effective, but more importantly,
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what are the ramifications of banning plastic straws?
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One number, at least for me, puts straw bans into a broader context: .025%.
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According to Phys.org, plastic straws account for only .025% of the total mass of trash
01:50
in the ocean.
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According to the Ocean Conservancy’s annual clean up report they pulled 643,542 straws
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or roughly .26 metric tonnes from the ocean in 2018.
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Scientists Denise Hardesty and Chris Wilcox estimate that there could be as much as 8.3
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billion plastic straws on the world’s coastlines.
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But when you consider that a straw weighs .4 grams, 8 billion straws equate to roughly
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3,320 metric tonnes of plastic.
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While that is a large number, it’s remarkably small compared to the 8 million metric tons
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of pieces of plastic that enter the ocean annually.
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So, straws are just a small part of a much larger ocean trash problem.
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In fact, if we look at the make-up of trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, fishing
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nets and gear make up 46% of the mass.
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So, plastic straws are not a large part of the piling mountain of trash, but they are
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a part.
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For that reason, the possibility of straw bans is cropping up in major metropolises
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like New York City.
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And part of the reason people are so eager to ban them is that they seem like low hanging
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fruit.
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Most people can get away with not using them.
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But this seemingly linear connection between banning single-use plastic straws and minimizing
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environmental impact is more nuanced upon closer inspection.
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In fact, calls for straw bans have experienced strong pushback from the people with disabilities,
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and rightfully so.
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Eliminating plastic straws is a prime example of eco-ableism.
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But to understand straws and ultimately eco-ableism, we need to first discuss spoons.
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In a blog post for the University of Alabama’s Institute for Human Rights, Marlee Townsend
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describes the concept of spoon theory initially coined by blogger Christine Miserandino.
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Townsend writes that within this spoon theory metaphor, able-bodied people wake up every
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day with an infinite amount of spoons, while people with disabilities only wake up with
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a couple of spoons.
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Every activity, like putting on socks or brushing your teeth requires a spoon.
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People with disabilities have to be deliberate with how they spend their spoons.
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Otherwise, as Townsend writes, they’ll be out of spoons before lunch, immobilized and
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exhausted.
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So not having access to a bendy straw, requires spending a spoon whenever someone wants to
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take a drink.
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In short, straw bans represent an instance of eco-ableism because in our haste to frontline
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environmental concerns, able-bodied people have made the lives of disabled folks harder
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by eliminating a product of convenience.
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At this point, you might be saying, “Hey, but what about the other straw alternatives!!”
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You’re right, there are currently paper, metal, and bamboo straws out there that restaurants
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have started to use, but unfortunately they are not as easy to use, durable, and flexible
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as plastic straws.
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In an op-ed in The Guardian disability rights activist, Penny Pepper, tackles this issue
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head-on.
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She notes that flexibility is one of the key reasons why plastic straws are so useful because
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it’s much easier to get the right angle for safe drinking, especially when you can’t
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hold a cup or even if another person holds it for you.”
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Metal and bamboo straws are often too hard or wide, which can prove problematic for people
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with biting issues.
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Alternatives also may be too costly, be a choking hazard, cause an allergic reaction,
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or might not be able to hold up to high temperatures.
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But to believe that people with disabilities are at odds with the environmental movement
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would be a mistake.
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In her op-ed Pepper goes on to write, “The irritating thing is that somehow disabled
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people are tainted as not caring about environmental issues.
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The truth, in my experience, is that many actually care more…
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I don’t actually want to use harmful chemicals in the interests of my personal care.”
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In essence, straw bans seem to be such a small portion of ocean plastic.
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The environmental good that bans will create will be minimal.
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We have not listened to or considered the effects a straw ban will have on disabled
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folks.
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If indeed, cleaning up ocean trash is our goal, then the management of fishing nets
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and refuse, which make up a larger percentage ocean trash, might be a much better use of
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our time.
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The point here is that straws are just a small piece of the plastic problem, and other areas
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of waste management would have a greater effect on our global drawdown of plastic use.
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Straw bans show environmental action can’t be done unilaterally and without viable alternatives
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for those who need them.
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It’s not just that marginalized people will have it worse if the environmental movement
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continues to ignore and create forms of oppression, it’s that we cannot do any of this work without
07:00
marginalized people.
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Most oppressed communities experience the worst of the world and therefore also tend
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to have the most radical solutions and build the most successful movements.
07:20
Despite the amount of time I spend honing my flashy graphics and slick visuals, the
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hardest part about making videos is writing a well-crafted story.
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At the end of the day, if the script isn’t good, then the video isn’t good.
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That’s why I’ve recently turned to Skillshare to learn more about developing strong narratives
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in non-fiction writing.
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Skillshare has been an essential way for me to work on my storytelling and writing in
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I recently dove into New Yorker Staff Writer Susan Orlean’s Creative Nonfiction writing
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08:42
Hey everyone, it’s Charlie.
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Just wanted to let you know that there is a global climate strike happening on September
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Also, speaking of support, thank you so much to people like Chris Lam who support me on
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They’re really the backbone of this whole operation and help bring consistency to my
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So thanks again, and I’ll see you in two weeks.
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This post was previously published on YouTube.