Most people are sadly unaware of how devastating the accumulation of plastic is becoming in our world, especially in the oceans. Some of the worst culprits are plastic straws. Not only can they never be recycled (which is something I didn’t even know until recently), when they are washed into the ocean, they have many horrific effects. For one, they can get stuck in turtles’ noses, like that one moving video that went viral last year, but even after they breakdown, they actually get ingested by even more marine creatures. And if this doesn’t kill them directly, those plastic-filled creatures gets eaten by larger ones, who often end up getting eaten by us.

I won’t pretend that breaking the habit of just using a plastic straw is easy though. This here is a picture of me with a metal straw at a restaurant in Daytona Beach. I’ve been bringing this type of straw around for a little bit now, and honestly find it more than a little cumbersome. So I’m looking into some alternatives. The thing about plastic straws is they are convenient, and think if we have any hope of replacing them, the replacement must be just as easy to use.