Comment & Debate
Plastic Pollution Coalition CEO Dianna Cohen told Business Insider: “We look at straws as one of the gateway issues to help people start thinking about the global plastic pollution problem. They’ve been designed to be used for a very short amount of time, and then be tossed away.”
Mihai Andrei, “The anti-plastic straw movement: What it is, Why it matters, and Is it a good thing?” ZME Science, July 20th, 2018: “As social psychology has shown numerous times already, if you want someone to do something important for you, you’re better off by first asking them to do a small favor first — which brings us to our initial argument. Banning straws is not really about banning straws. It’s not peak slacktivism, as some have called it, but rather it’s about sending a message that’s essentially saying society is ready to take a small but decisive step in a very long journey. I’m not sure it’s the best step, and I’m not sure how much of a difference it will make in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a step — and we need as many steps as we can get.”