by Christine Lepisto (@greenanswer –
Screen capture StrawlessOcean.org/suckerpunch
35,000
That’s the number of plastic straws the average American uses in a lifetime.
500 million
Every single day, Americans toss 500 million plastic straws in the trash. That’s 175 billion straws per year.
Top Ten in the Ocean
According to the Ocean conservancy, plastic straws are in the top ten marine debris items (here’s looking at you, cig butts and single-use shopping bags in positions #1 and #2!)
2050
At the current rate, this is the year in which the weight of plastic in the ocean will exceed the weight of all the fish in the seas.
2.3 million
The Strawless in Seattle campaign encouraged business to voluntarily give up plastic straws, keeping 2.3 million of the persistent tubes out of the environment.
Bonus fun fact: the first artificial straws were paper
Compostable paper straws are often suggested as an alternative when you just can’t stand to sip with your lips. Did you know that the first straw was invented from paper, by winding a strip around a pencil? The inventor, Marvin Chester Stone, patented the artificial straw in 1888, offering a replacement for natural rye grass straws that dissolved in the beverage and imparted a grassy taste.We dug up these fun facts after tripping over the Strawless Ocean Stop Suckingcampaign in the mainstream media. The clever ad features a number of celebrities getting “sucker punched” by an (artificial) octopus tentacle in slow motion.
Could this widespread attention to the issue finally be the last straw?
