Elizabeth Warren is right. Plastic straws are not worth our time.

Thank you, Elizabeth Warren, for being courageous enough to speak the truth (as usual) at the Democratic climate change debate: ‘the fossil fuel industry wants to keep us arguing about light bulbs and cheeseburgers while 70% of pollution comes from just three industries. We need to focus on creating big, structural change…’ This structure vs. consumer behavior change (agency) has been a longstanding debate within academia, and specifically in sustainable development literature in recent years, with many calling out the latter as an opportunity for big corporations to use consumers as scapegoats. And it’s 100% true. Do we simply blame big corporations for our demise and excuse any responsibility placed on us as consumers? Absolutely not. We make personal changes empowered by this knowledge while every day calling out big corporations for their leading role in this catastrophe — and elect politicians who get it.

With this understanding, the plastic straw debate 2019 has been a really interesting one to watch. Do not get me wrong, please continue to bring your reusable straw when you go to brunch, seek out places with compostable straws, or just simply sip from the side of the cup like me. However, let’s dig a bit deeper and ask why the banning of this product in particular has been mainstreamed. Are plastic straws being used to make us feel better or even distract from our impending climate crisis? Plastic straws are non-recyclable, made of a highly fossil fuel-intensive form of plastic, and are a top-five contaminant found on the coastline. As many have shockingly witnessed via YouTube, straws can get stuck in sea turtles’ orifices and cause severe health issues or death. But get this, according to a recent @fastcompany article, the Starbucks sippy cup (the plastic straw solution) is very difficult to recycle and made of the same form of plastic as straws. It seems many are happy to accept this replacement of one single-use plastic item for another without question. Let’s challenge ourselves to go further and call it like we see it. This swap by Starbucks seems to me to be a case of misdirection. Starbucks is responsible for mass quantities of global waste and GHG emissions yet we are celebrating this small and unsubstantial, perhaps even more harmful, change. Again, does this mean we should all return to plastic straws? Of course not. It means we need to be skeptical and critical of corporate activity. Just as EW pointed out, it is not conspiratorial to question the marketing tactics of big corporations. Corporate powers at be made this crisis and we need so much more than sippy cups to minimize the catastrophe that is coming.