#strawless

Let’s Go Strawless Collection

Let’s Go Strawless Collection

I have always been the type of person who wants to change the world in any little way I can. Recognizing this, I also realize that not everyone lives in this mindset. I would like to make absolutely clear that you aren’t a better or worse person if one of your top motivations are to leave the world better than you found it; everyone is driven by different things in their life and I think that is wonderful and realistic. Some people are just out here trying to live their lives with dreams to own a house, have a family, and come home from a 9-5 job every day to laugh at memes and spend time with loved ones. Everyone’s dream holds just as much meaning, no matter if it is as big as the world or as small as an individual and their Netflix account. 

However, I would like to live my life and make a change. I first got pulled into the ideas of plastic being really annoying in the environment in high school, when my family started recycling. We jumped on the trend as everyone else and I felt like it was absolutely wonderful. I thought that it was a for sure way and pretty much the only way my family could help support the environment, along with not being a shitty person and littering. I didn’t feel the need to do anything else. I never felt it would be much better to do much else, and anything else was too hard anyway. We were doing our part and that was it. 

Later in college, as college often does, I became more of an activist. I learned just how much shit I put into the bin that probably contaminated the whole container that could no longer be recycled. Then I learned a further shocking fact; most of what we put into the recycling doesn’t even actually get recycled. I always thought it was amazing when they moved it to a single bin system; the customer doesn’t have to divide plastic from cardboard, etc. I didn’t think about it until now though, how that impacted the recycling industry. What really makes the industry profitable? With garbage, you can throw it all together and bury it. With recycling you need to make sure it’s cleaned, sorted, and then properly manufactured into a copy of itself. It seems like a ton of work. Turns out the recycling industry is severely struggling, especially since China has recently stopped taking in our trash and recycling for processing. I wouldn’t take our trash either.

I eventually started a whole project at my university to educate other college students on plastic and how it impacts the world around us. I also handed out reusable straws and reusable bags at tabling events. I wanted to get people thinking and maybe create more people changing their lifestyles because they thought what I said made sense. What I ran into the most were people who were already educated and actively changing their lifestyles. They loved having conversations about their passions for the environment and what annoyed them about “people who didn’t help the environment”. I’m not going to lie, I really loved talking to people with similar points of view as me, and I even learned some new fun facts myself. However, those weren’t the people that I was out there for. 

From this, I can make two possible conclusions: 

1. Most of the people at my university are super woke and love reusable straws and the environment

2. My booth not only attracted “environmentally friendly” people, but more importantly deterred those who weren’t about environmental advocacy and think the cardboard straw trend “sucks”. (See what I did there?)

Which conclusion would you bet on?

The 2nd outcome is much more likely, otherwise we’d have strawless universities by now. 

I honestly don’t blame them. You go to booths for the free stuff, and if you know you are never going to remember to bring your own bag to the grocery store, or actually wash a reusable straw after every time you use it, it’s just not the booth for you. 

I think this example speaks a lot to the other “booths” of the world giving their spiel on plastic and recycling. One day I’d love to try making a space where conversation is more open, diverse, and motivates people who don’t care a lot about environmental advocacy to talk about it. It’s always more fun when you can’t predict where the conversation will go. 

So basically after all of these experiences, I’ve finally found my way to help the environment, even when I’m lazy with my lifestyle. First of all, I know myself very well. I will only remember to bring a reusable grocery bag to the store 25% of the time, and I wont remember to take it into the store with me most of the times I actually bring it. So instead, I just don’t get a plastic bag at checkout when I don’t need one. This is especially effective when you’re going to the gas station or the Pharmacy for some quick M&Ms and a soda. If you’re only getting two items at the store, you really don’t need a bag. So just tell the cashier that you don’t want one. It’s one of the most effective ways I’ve saved using plastic.

I also know I am WAY too lazy to use a reusable straw because I never want to clean it and I never have it with me when I need it. So I just don’t use a straw at all. I realize this isn’t something everyone is comfortable with, and that’s fine, but if you can do it, I highly encourage it. You can be super lazy. For example, if I go to McDonalds and I’m taking it home to eat I just ask for no straw. Even when going out to restaurants I do this. I know some people prefer the straws because they think drinking from glasses is unsanitary. I can totally get this, but in my opinion, if my glass may be unsanitary, there are similar chances my plate and silverware is also unsanitary. So I just let it go. 

So my message I will leave you with is this: