Most straws are made of plastic, the same material used for disposable bags, bottles, and cups. Plastic is inexpensive, water-resistant, lightweight, and strong. These properties make it useful—but also harmful to the environment.
“Plastic is a great material for items that we want to last for a long time,” says Kara Lavender Law, an ocean scientist at the Sea Education Association in Massachusetts. “But items like straws are used one time, become trash in a matter of minutes, and can stick around forever.”
Unlike paper, plastic doesn’t completely biodegrade, or naturally break down in the environment. Instead, the material crumbles into fragments called microplastics. Scientists believe that these tiny pieces may stay in the environment for thousands of years.
Though straws account for only a fraction of the estimated 8 million tons of plastic waste that washes into the ocean each year, they cause big problems for ocean animals. Scientists have found plastic straws wedged in the nostrils of sea turtles and lodged in the stomachs of seabirds and fish that have mistaken the straws for food.