tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/plastic-straws-55879/articlesplastic straws – The Conversation2022-07-24T12:28:56Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868102022-07-24T12:28:56Z2022-07-24T12:28:56ZDisability rights don’t have to clash with environmental responsibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474173/original/file-20220714-32596-fao8u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=119%2C107%2C7821%2C5047&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sturdy yet flexible, hygienic, disposable, readily available and cheap ... the plastic straw is better than any eco-alternative for many disabled folks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Picture this. There’s a tool you rely on to drink and using it is essential. It’s readily available. You’re given one with a drink wherever you go, and you can buy it cheaply in many stores. Imagine, then, that this tool is taken away. </p>
<p>It’s banned, becomes a hard to find — hidden from view and potentially expensive. Your ability to rely on this tool for your safety just became difficult. </p>
<p>This is the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/guelph-accessibility-advisory-commitee-plastic-straws-1.6434180">situation facing disabled people who rely on plastic straws</a> to drink, under <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-reducing-waste/reduce-plastic-waste/single-use-plastic-technical-guidance.html">the federal government’s newly released regulations on single-use plastics</a>. </p>
<p>You may have heard about this before. In 2018, provincial and territorial governments agreed to the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/news/2021/12/government-of-canada-moving-forward-with-banning-harmful-single-use-plastics0.html">Canada-wide Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste</a>.</p>
<p>Now, four years later, with attention switching away from the pandemic, the regulations on single-use plastics leave disabled people who rely on plastic straws abandoned by unnecessary eco-ableism. There is a compromise to be reached.</p>
<h2>A case for the environment</h2>
<p>The environmental case on single-use plastics is well known, and one that has <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/plastic-pollution-ocean-circular-economy/">scientific and public support</a>. Our sidewalks show evidence of discarded single-use plastics, and our landfills are full of plastics that will never breakdown. Our behaviours must change – that’s irrefutable. </p>
<p>While deciding how much change needs to happen, the federal government has concentrated on banning “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/plastics-ban-countdown-1.6494379">the big six</a>” – plastic items that are most regularly found to be polluting our environment such as grocery bags, cutlery and straws. </p>
<p>In a small step towards recognizing the needs of disabled people, there are exceptions. Plastic flexible straws will be available for sale in packages of 20 or more, but <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-reducing-waste/reduce-plastic-waste/single-use-plastic-technical-guidance.html">only if they are hidden from view and the customer requests them</a>. But they will not be available in restaurants or any place that sells drinks.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A table with four glasses of juice and some snacks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474168/original/file-20220714-32651-7f7hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474168/original/file-20220714-32651-7f7hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474168/original/file-20220714-32651-7f7hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474168/original/file-20220714-32651-7f7hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474168/original/file-20220714-32651-7f7hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474168/original/file-20220714-32651-7f7hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474168/original/file-20220714-32651-7f7hp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You may be asking why a flexible plastic straw is needed. What about paper or silicon?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For some disabled people, the <a href="https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2022/06/23/plastic-straws/">flexible plastic straw is life-sustaining</a>. Drinking from a cup requires a complex set of muscles to work together seamlessly, from lifting and tipping the cup to your mouth to controlling the muscles required to swallow. </p>
<p>For people with any number of neuromuscular conditions, this complex motion just isn’t possible and could lead to complications like aspiration, when fluid enters the lungs and causes pneumonia, or dehydration, when the body lacks the fluid it needs to function. </p>
<p>For disabled people, these complications can lead to death.</p>
<h2>Eco-ableism</h2>
<p>You may be asking why a flexible plastic straw is needed. What about paper or silicon? Disabled people are resilient and resourceful people. They’ve <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/11/627773979/why-people-with-disabilities-want-bans-on-plastic-straws-to-be-more-flexible">tried out all the different types</a> and know that the flexible plastic straw is the one for them – <a href="https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/plastic-straw-alternatives.pdf">sturdy yet flexible, hygienic, disposable, readily available and cheap</a>. </p>
<p>If a disabled person tells you something works for them, believe them. </p>
<p>There are two contrasting models of disability at work. The single-use plastics regulations are an example of <a href="https://old.psac-ncr.com/defining-disability-medical-model-social-model-disability">the medical model of disability in action</a> — a model that is deeply rooted in our societal beliefs, seeing disability as the problem of the individual, so the extra steps that someone needs to take to access plastic straws are their problem, their responsibility. </p>
<p>As disabled writer <a href="https://www.eater.com/2018/7/19/17586742/plastic-straw-ban-disabilities">Alice Wong says</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I live in a world that was never built for me, and every little bit of access is treasured and hard-won. Bans on plastic straws are regressive, not progressive.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In contrast, the social model of disability believes that disability is society’s problem. It believes that we need to remove barriers to allow disabled people’s full inclusion into society. </p>
<p>In 2019, <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/A-0.6/page-1.html#h-1153434">the Accessible Canada Act became law, and is built on these principles of barrier removal</a>. It talks of disabled people being involved in the design of laws and policies, and the need for barrier-free access to full and equal participation in society — this is missing from the single-use plastics regulations. </p>
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<img alt="A person stands holding plastic straws at the beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474170/original/file-20220714-32349-vcph23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474170/original/file-20220714-32349-vcph23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474170/original/file-20220714-32349-vcph23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474170/original/file-20220714-32349-vcph23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474170/original/file-20220714-32349-vcph23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474170/original/file-20220714-32349-vcph23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474170/original/file-20220714-32349-vcph23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite being a single-use plastics, plastic straws are a life sustaining accessibility tool.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(OCG/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We have set up an unnecessary division — environmentalism versus the needs of disabled people — <a href="https://sustainability.emory.edu/eco-ableism-in-the-zero-waste-movement/">creating eco-ableism</a>. Compromise is the way forward, and already exists in our approach to single-use plastics. </p>
<p>For example, plastic tops for take-out drinks like coffee and pop are not banned, because there is no reliable alternative. The environmental cost of keeping those plastics has been balanced with the need to carry drinks safely. There are compromises available for flexible plastic straws too. </p>
<p>The City of Vancouver <a href="https://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/plastic-straws.aspx">has had a bylaw in place since 2020</a> that was developed in consultation with disabled people who use straws to drink. It allows for flexible plastic straws in restaurants, including the design of a logo to tell disabled people that these straws are available. </p>
<p>And similar examples can be found throughout North America. However, it may be that Canada is the first jurisdiction to introduce such stringent rules on the sale of plastic straws. </p>
<p>Placing plastic straws, a life-sustaining accessibility tool, under the same restrictions for sale as tobacco products is overly harsh, and detrimental to the dignity and inclusion of disabled people. Compromise is needed between the inclusion of all Canadians and our environmental responsibilities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Hewitt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Placing plastic straws, a life sustaining accessibility tool, under the same restrictions for sale as tobacco products is overly harsh, and detrimental to the dignity and inclusion of disabled peopleMichelle Hewitt, PhD Candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies, Community Engagement, Social Change and Equity, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1102472019-01-31T23:01:10Z2019-01-31T23:01:10ZPlastic in the oceans is not the fault of the Global South<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256676/original/file-20190131-108338-se2jwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plastic pollution on a beach on Bali, Indonesia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our oceans are littered with plastics. Indeed, we are regularly exposed to images and stories of whales and sea turtles choking to death on plastic trash. Ocean plastic is clearly a problem but what is the solution?</p>
<p>On the surface, it seems clear, plastic must be reduced or eliminated at its source. Here’s why: <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluting-our-oceans-comes-from-just-10-rivers/">Ninety per cent of ocean plastics come from 10 rivers</a>, eight of which are in Asia. And <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hannahleung/2018/04/21/five-asian-countries-dump-more-plastic-than-anyone-else-combined-how-you-can-help/#2c7c17901234">the five most plastic polluting countries</a> are China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.</p>
<p>This agrees with our experience along Vietnam’s coast, where there are piles of plastic on the beaches, and where we research the impact of marine plastic debris on coastal livelihoods. </p>
<p>However, when you look below the surface, you see that these arguments blame the plastic tide on consumers in the Global South — without mention of those living in the global north. It is as if they have no responsibility for the crisis. </p>
<p>If we understand waste, not as something produced by the actions of a group of individuals, but rather a product of socioeconomic systems that <a href="https://discardstudies.com/what-is-discard-studies/">contribute to making waste and encourages wasting</a>, problems with these dominant explanations arise. We start to see that Western consumers are part of the problem and cannot be absolved of their responsibility.</p>
<h2>Unequal waste flows</h2>
<p>Asian countries have long been in the business of processing the plastic waste that comes from the global north. But China’s January 2018 ban on imported waste (much of which arrived from the global north) <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/28/623972937/china-has-refused-to-recycle-the-wests-plastics-what-now">completely disrupted</a> the plastic waste trade. </p>
<p>News reports <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/recycling-contamination-1.4606893">show that Canada</a>, the United States, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/recycling-costs-waste-councils-plastic-china-local-government-association-a8592456.html">the United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/australiawide-bag-ban-leads-to-15-billion-fewer-plastic-bags-in-the-environment/news-story/678f21eb838fb6706baa370bc3b3ec29">Australia</a> scrambled through much of 2018 to find a solution to this problem. Much of the waste was diverted to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/china-ban-plastic-trash-imports-shifts-waste-crisis-southeast-asia-malaysia/">neighbouring countries</a>, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam — four of them part of the so-called most polluting countries.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-clean-up-our-universal-plastic-tragedy-98565">How to clean up our universal plastic tragedy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>These countries are now overwhelmed by the sheer volume of plastics. Vietnam, for instance, announced it would <a href="https://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/environment/215883/scrap-imports-through-road--railway-border-gates-to-be-banned.html">ban the import of scrap material</a> in early 2019, in response to concerns by residents about worsening environmental conditions and the health of locals. </p>
<h2>Exporting problems and inequality</h2>
<p>Some individuals, mostly in the global north, are trying to reduce their plastic consumption by avoiding cheap plastic straws and single-use bags or using only durable and sustainably produced items. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256701/original/file-20190131-103164-ss0q0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256701/original/file-20190131-103164-ss0q0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256701/original/file-20190131-103164-ss0q0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256701/original/file-20190131-103164-ss0q0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256701/original/file-20190131-103164-ss0q0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256701/original/file-20190131-103164-ss0q0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256701/original/file-20190131-103164-ss0q0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Plastic bottles and other waste at a disposal site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Unfortunately, these “solutions” perpetuate inequality, nationally and internationally. Not everyone can afford a bamboo toothbrush. In addition, durable options are often made of multiple components that are harder to separate for recycling once they enter the waste stream — and once they do, are slower to breakdown. </p>
<p>This focus on individual action also overlooks the fact that corporations using plastic packaging are subsidised through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/05/big-business-not-taxpayers-should-pay-to-clean-up-plastic-waste">publicly funded municipal waste programs</a>. And lighter plastic packaging equals cheaper global shipping — further encouraging production and consumption of more cheap plastic.</p>
<p>But by far the biggest consequence of our consumer lifestyle is the creation of wasteful spaces. As contaminated oceans and filthy landscapes become more and more common, the increased attention to improper waste-management practices in “polluting countries” has created the perception that <a href="https://www.earthday.org/2018/04/06/top-20-countries-ranked-by-mass-of-mismanaged-plastic-waste/">they are mismanaging</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/8-steps-to-solve-the-oceans-plastic-problem/">misusing plastics</a>. Those on the receiving end of the global north’s waste <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/video/trashed-billionaire-scrap-village-residents-die-a-slow-death-3763776.html">pay the ultimate price</a>.</p>
<h2>Tidying things up</h2>
<p>The export of waste from the global north to the Global South has been controversial for more than 30 years. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) argued in 1989 that this perpetuates inequality and supports the movement of waste across borders. Recently the <a href="https://www.ciel.org/plastic-waste-proposal-basel-convention/">UNDP proposed revising the wording</a> of the <a href="http://www.basel.int/">Basel Convention</a>, so that imported plastic waste would no longer be called “green waste,” giving the receiving country the right to refuse polluted or mixed plastic waste that it could not manage safely. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-garbage-ban-upends-us-recycling-is-it-time-to-reconsider-incineration-98206">China’s garbage ban upends US recycling – is it time to reconsider incineration?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Although this amendment has not been approved, doing so would encourage a better understanding of the source of plastics in our oceans instead of blaming the developing world for their improper management.</p>
<p>Make no mistake, when we throw out that single-use cup, recycle plastic cauliflower wrappers or buy into the current <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/31/tech/marie-kondo-digital-clutter/index.html">Marie Kondo</a> obsession of keeping only “joyful things,” we are supported by structures of global inequality. Ethical consumption is still consumption, and there may not always be another country or landfill available for our discarded stuff.</p>
<p>It may seem right to encourage recycling, but there are larger implications. Recycling will not fix the problem of ocean plastics, and pointing the finger at the Global South for poor waste management practices simply reproduces colonial habits of exporting problems and victim-blaming. True solutions rest in reduced consumption and more equitable waste-management practices including rewarding sustainable ideas and forcing corporations to pay to clean up their mess.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin J. Roth receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alisa Greenwood-Nguyen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Asian countries have become a dumping ground for the plastic waste from wealthy countries.Alisa Greenwood-Nguyen, Masters Student, University of GuelphRobin J. Roth, Associate Professor of Geography, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/767712018-08-13T10:22:07Z2018-08-13T10:22:07ZWalmart tried to make sustainability affordable. Here’s what happened<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231517/original/file-20180810-2894-1eljuak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can Walmart go green while maintaining its commitment to low prices?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Tom Uhlman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What a difference the birth of a granddaughter can make. </p>
<p>For Lee Scott, who ran Walmart from 2000 to 2009, the arrival of his granddaughter not only <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=NZWrBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT32&lpg=PT32&dq=lee+scott+walmart+sustainability+%22granddaughter%22+born&source=bl&ots=v0C2lpjRxW&sig=w0DDA9Vqi8haEptJfVu8-oNYOuA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiG09Si3r_cAhVD6lMKHXHeAscQ6AEwDHoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=lee%20scott%20walmart%20sustainability%20%22granddaughter%22%20born&f=false">convinced</a> him the threat of global warming was real but set him on a course that altered the very DNA of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/#tab:overall">world’s largest retailer</a>. He decided he wanted to use its size and resources to make the world an “even better place for all of us,” changing the way millions shop in the process. </p>
<p>In 2005, midway through his tenure, he challenged his employees: “What would it take for Walmart to be that company, at our best, all the time?” </p>
<p>The answer became Walmart’s <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/sustainability/">sustainability program</a>, an ambitious effort to figure out how to get its budget-conscious customers to buy more sustainable products. Of course, it was more than Scott’s granddaughter that pushed the retailer in this direction. A <a href="https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/wal-mart-the-high-cost-of-low-price/">dismal perception</a> among the public as well as a <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WMT/chart?p=WMT#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%3D">stagnant stock price</a> also played roles in prodding Scott and other Walmart officials to take the company in a more environmentally aware direction. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cvvmqUAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">We</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Hyatt5">spent</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125617695287">five years</a> studying the program – speaking with Walmart’s sustainability leaders, its suppliers and others who have a stake in the company’s activities such as environmental groups and farmers. Our findings highlight both the promises and perils of what one Walmart executive optimistically termed the “democratization of sustainability.”</p>
<h2>Glaciers, landfills and shopping bags</h2>
<p>During our extensive research into the implementation of Walmart’s sustainability program, we found many executives from the CEO on down who were passionate about making the company more environmentally friendly. Before the retailer even began its program, corporate executives traversed the globe to better understand what was at stake. </p>
<p>We were told stories of Scott’s summer 2005 trip to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, where <a href="https://www.mountwashington.org/research-and-product-testing/past-projects/climate-change-and-air-pollutant-impacts-to-new-englands-rare-alpine-zone.aspx">scientists take measurements</a> of the ice and the wind to measure the effects of climate change and air pollution. There he met with Environmental Defense Fund President <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/fred-krupp/walmart-the-awakening-of_b_9253920.html">Fred Krupp</a> and some of the scientists to discuss the company’s environmental impact and what it could be doing differently. On that same trip, he also met with maple syrup farmers who explained how climate change was affecting their harvests. </p>
<p>Other company leaders made trips to parched cotton fields, landfills covered with Walmart shopping bags and melting Arctic glaciers, all with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of sustainability and engaging with environmental groups, journalists and critics.</p>
<p>But it still wasn’t clear where all this was going until August of that year, when <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/hurricane-katrina-8452">Hurricane Katrina</a> hit New Orleans, causing extensive human suffering and property damage along the coast.</p>
<p>Walmart, in an unusual move, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR2005090501598.html">gave local managers wide discretion</a> in helping communities respond and, along with a few other large retailers, worked hard to get needed supplies to the area. In the context of <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-things-that-have-changed-about-fema-since-katrina-and-5-that-havent-83205">widely reported government failures</a> during the crisis, Walmart <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-scott/how-hurricane-katrina-cha_b_8043692.html">received praise</a> for its actions – a far cry from the usual criticism Scott received from social and political activists. </p>
<p>After Katrina, Scott had an epiphany, which culminated in that <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/_news_/executive-viewpoints/twenty-first-century-leadership">speech</a> he made in October 2005 near Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, during which he announced the project: </p>
<p>“What if we used our size and resources to make this country and this earth an even better place for all of us: customers, associates, our children and generations unborn?”</p>
<h2>Seeking sustainability</h2>
<p>In the speech, Scott laid out Walmart’s sustainability vision to Walmart employees and suppliers. He called for reducing waste, using more renewable energy and selling products that “sustained people and the environment.” </p>
<p>In a way, these goals sounded easy. Simply cut down on waste, become more efficient, convince its legions of suppliers to make more sustainable products and sell them at its “low, low prices.” Sustainability goes up, costs go down, everybody wins. But as Scott and his successors learned, this was easier said than done. </p>
<p>Some aspects were relatively straightforward. The company’s efforts to operate more efficiently produced <a href="http://corporate.walmart.com/2017grr/performance-highlights">significant environmental value</a> – and helped its <a href="https://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/10/walmart-to-save-150m-with-sustainability-initiatives-in-fy13/">bottom line</a>. The efficiency of its fleet of trucks doubled within a decade. Walmart <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/2018grr/">has now converted 28 percent</a> of the energy sources powering its stores and operations globally to renewables. </p>
<p>And last year, the <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/2018grr/reducing-waste">company diverted 78 percent</a> of its global waste from landfills, instead finding ways to recycle, reuse or even sell the garbage. Its goal is to eventually get to 50 percent renewables and zero waste in Canada, Japan, the U.K. and U.S. by 2025.</p>
<p>Selling products that “sustained people and the environment” was harder. By 2008, its was clear that progress was not being made as fast as the company had expected. </p>
<p>Walmart had a challenging job. While the <a href="https://www.unilever.com/news/press-releases/2017/report-shows-a-third-of-consumers-prefer-sustainable-brands.html">market</a> for sustainable products is large and growing, it has primarily catered to people with a lot of disposable income <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/eu/en/insights/reports/2015/the-sustainability-imperative.html">who can afford</a> to pay the “goodness” <a href="https://www.luxurysociety.com/en/articles/2018/02/how-luxury-brands-are-practicing-sustainability-creative-ways">premium</a> for things like Toyota Priuses and organic foods. </p>
<p>What about the majority of consumers who usually see the <a href="https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/downloads/consumer-science-research-compendium/">high price of sustainability as a barrier</a>? Are sustainable products a luxury good only attainable by the well off? </p>
<p>The questions and challenges of selling sustainable products escalated over time. What is a sustainable product? How could it be measured effectively and efficiently? And how could this information create value for the company and customers? Would people be willing to pay for it if it was impossible to keep the costs down?</p>
<p>Two interconnected challenges it faced are particularly illuminating: the lack of a sustainability standard and how to convince suppliers and customers to go along. </p>
<h2>What’s ‘sustainable’ anyway?</h2>
<p>Walmart leaders quickly learned that the absence of a credible sustainability standard hampered their ability to market new products. </p>
<p>Back then, marketing products as “sustainable” was anything goes. While a few marketing attributes, like “organic,” are <a href="https://www.usda.gov/topics/organic">verified</a> by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for the most part companies were free to call their products “sustainable,” “natural” or “good for you,” regardless of whether it was true or not. </p>
<p>The need for a standard crystallized when Walmart asked suppliers for proposals for a <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/_news_/news-archive/2008/04/21/wal-mart-consumer-behavior-shows-buying-green-is-going-mainstream">2008 Earth Day promotion</a>. It wanted to specifically promote products that were sustainable. Suppliers responded with such a vast range of claims that Walmart managers could not figure out which products to include. Examples of traits that made a product “sustainable” ranged from having “reduced” packaging material – though there was no gauge as to what it was reduced from – to the use of non-toxic ingredients or the product’s overall recyclability. </p>
<p>A subsequent promotion of Campbell’s soup with a green “Earth Day” label (instead of its customary red one) generated external criticism and accusations of “greenwashing.” That is, some <a href="https://thewashcycle.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/campbell%E2%80%99s-is-going-green-or-are-they%E2%80%A6/">bloggers</a> claimed sustainability at Walmart simply meant taking existing products and putting green labels on them.</p>
<p>Lessons like these led Walmart to seek a way of defining what sustainable means for all its products – a mammoth scale given that the company had over 60,000 direct suppliers and a single store could sell about <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/_news_/news-archive/2005/01/07/our-retail-divisions">142,000 products</a>. So, in 2009, the company helped establish the <a href="https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/">Sustainability Consortium</a>, a collaboration of retailers, suppliers, universities, environmental groups and others to create a data-driven index of sustainability.</p>
<p>The consortium would eventually produce a sustainability “toolkit” with key performance indicators and guidance for achieving sustainability at the product category level whether these be laundry care products, computers or beer. </p>
<p>Such indicators could then be used by consortium members in communications with their suppliers, typically in a sustainability scorecard that the supplier would complete. For instance, a manufacturer might be asked if it had plans for reducing harmful emissions – and if it didn’t, the thinking initially went, this type of information could eventually be passed on to consumers who could then make their own judgments.</p>
<p>The problem was, relying on customers didn’t work.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231584/original/file-20180812-2909-r28tvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231584/original/file-20180812-2909-r28tvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231584/original/file-20180812-2909-r28tvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231584/original/file-20180812-2909-r28tvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231584/original/file-20180812-2909-r28tvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231584/original/file-20180812-2909-r28tvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/231584/original/file-20180812-2909-r28tvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Getting its budget-conscious customers to choose sustainable products was one of Walmart’s biggest challenges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Images for Walmart/Gunnar Rathbun</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Focusing on suppliers – not consumers</h2>
<p>Most corporate efforts to become more sustainable are based on the premise that <a href="https://ashtonmanufacturing.com.au/66-of-consumers-willing-to-pay-more-for-sustainable-goods-nielsen-report-reveals/">consumers are willing</a> to pay more for eggs that are organic or coffee that is sustainably sourced. </p>
<p>This posed a dilemma for Walmart since its margins are so thin and most of its customers shop there for the ultra-low prices. How could they be convinced, en masse, to pay a bit more because something is tagged as sustainable? And what would be the best way to let them know a particular product was more sustainable than another? Company leaders believed, based on internal surveys, that although its customers desired (or would in the future desire) more sustainable products, many did not have the means or desire to pay extra. </p>
<p>And while Walmart’s implementation of sustainability metrics into its supplier scorecards gave it insight into supplier practices, they did not provide detailed, verifiable information required for a customer-facing label.</p>
<p>This led Walmart to focus less on consumers and more on suppliers. If it could just make sure its products were more sustainable or at least that it was able to offer more options – without a meaningful increase in price – it could go a long way toward achieving its goals. And consumers wouldn’t even realize they’re helping make the world a better place. </p>
<p>Walmart’s merchants were ready to listen. The supplier scorecards that started rolling in 2012 helped Walmart identify inefficiencies in its supplies’ own supply chains, just as the retailer had found in its own operations years earlier. Walmart used them to push suppliers to seek out similar low-cost innovations in their operations – so they could become more sustainable without altering product price tags – and aligned 5 percent of its employees’ performance goals on sustainability improvements, thus incentivizing buyers to ask about, and suppliers to report on, sustainability metrics. </p>
<p>Early indications are that Walmart’s supplier-focused product sustainability strategy has been influential. A 2014 <a href="http://purestrategies.com/downloads/the-path-to-product-sustainability">study</a> by sustainability consultancy Pure Strategies surveyed a broad range of 100 companies such as Timberland, General Mills and Coca-Cola to better understand what it takes to operate sustainably. It found that Walmart was the top-cited retailer driving suppliers’ investments in product sustainability, with 79 percent identifying the retailer as influential. </p>
<h2>It’s ‘complicated’</h2>
<p>Many of the primary lessons that Walmart has learned so far relate to an emergent understanding of the complexity of selling low-cost sustainable products.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229464/original/file-20180726-106511-ug5gwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229464/original/file-20180726-106511-ug5gwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229464/original/file-20180726-106511-ug5gwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229464/original/file-20180726-106511-ug5gwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229464/original/file-20180726-106511-ug5gwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229464/original/file-20180726-106511-ug5gwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229464/original/file-20180726-106511-ug5gwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Walmart Chairman Rob Walton.‘</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Walmart-Shareholders-Meeting/0197bc33de7440539e20c974b65a96a6/5/0">AP Photo/Gareth Patterson</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Commenting about the difficulty developing its sustainability index quickly, Rob Walton, Walmart chairman and son of the founder, <a href="http://fortune.com/2012/04/17/wal-mart-chairman-how-we-came-to-embrace-sustainability/">told a panel</a> in 2012: “But good gosh, this is really complicated stuff, and it’s giving our buyers information to inform decisions and compare products. It will be a great day when we can give consumers that information.”</p>
<p>Walmart’s efforts showed that balancing cost and sustainability is possible but difficult to implement. For companies, labeling a low-cost product as “sustainable” makes it harder to justify charging a higher price for a similar good that bears that label. And retailers would prefer not to waste limited shelf space providing those options.</p>
<p>Customers may <a href="https://www.unilever.com/news/press-releases/2017/report-shows-a-third-of-consumers-prefer-sustainable-brands.html">prefer</a> sustainable practices yet be unable to pay the premium, even when it’s very little. So, while Walmart can push in this direction, it probably cannot create a mass market for low-cost sustainable products on its own. The retailer and others who wish to develop such a market will likely continue to struggle with what counts as “sustainable enough” for price-conscious customers. </p>
<p>Until that question is answered, sustainable products are likely to remain “luxury” goods that fail to penetrate into the mainstream.</p>
<p>But if we care for the next generation, as Lee Scott did when he decided Walmart was going green, Walmart’s goal of bringing greater scale and scope to the typically niche market of sustainability is a vital one. </p>
<p>“As you become a grandparent,” Scott <a href="https://grist.org/article/griscom-little3/">told a journalist</a> in 2006, “you just become more thoughtful about what will the world look like that she inherits.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Graham Hyatt is affiliated with the University of Arkansas, which in partnership with Arizona State, founded the Sustainability Consortium with a lead gift from Walmart. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Spicer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two business professors spent five years studying Walmart’s ambition project to bring sustainability to its millions of budget-conscious customers – a plan that began with the birth of a granddaughter.Andrew Spicer, Associate Professor of International Business, University of South CarolinaDavid Graham Hyatt, Research Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, University of ArkansasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1003032018-07-24T22:56:24Z2018-07-24T22:56:24ZWhy you shouldn’t be a ‘straw-man’ environmentalist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228655/original/file-20180720-142420-1l0f4nc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Eurasian Coot sits on a nest built from human litter, including plastic straws, inside a half-sunk boat in an Amsterdam canal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The “straw bubble” has burst. </p>
<p>We’re midway through 2018, and we have seen an explosion of efforts and local action to eliminate plastic straws. Some of the world’s largest companies, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-clean-up-our-universal-plastic-tragedy-98565">McDonald’s</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44774762">Starbucks</a>, have banned them from some of their operations.</p>
<p>McDonald’s announced recently that it would <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44492352">replace plastic straws with paper ones in all restaurants in the U.K. and Ireland by September 2018</a>. Similarly, Starbucks will <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44774762">eliminate plastic straws from all of its stores globally by 2020</a>. </p>
<p>Airlines, hotel chains and local restaurants in droves are all removing the ubiquitous plastic from their consumer services.</p>
<p>Dramatic and evocative statements and statistics, including the infamous “<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/will-plastic-really-outweigh-fish-ocean-2050">plastic will outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050</a>” prophecy, are inciting some incredible interventions from governments, large multinationals and individual citizens. Although these kinds of statements <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-all-marine-fish-eat-plastics-99488">may not be entirely accurate</a>, the overwhelming response has been the removal of straws from day-to-day society.</p>
<h2>Anti-straw backlash</h2>
<p>Along with these recent “anti-straw” endeavours, there comes an accompanying “anti-anti-straw” rhetoric that opposes such interventions on various grounds. </p>
<p>For instance, disability rights activists have weighed in on the plastic-straw ban. Some people with disabilities need straws to drink because they have trouble swallowing or cannot lift or hold a cup. </p>
<p>A plethora of alternatives to plastic straws exist to provide practical solutions, including silicone, paper and stainless steel. Ultimately, this means all consumers have an ethical choice to make: <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/planetorplastic/">planet or plastic</a>?</p>
<p>We don’t contest the importance of accessibility, which is why we do not argue in favour of an absolute outright ban on straws. Rather, we believe that “<a href="https://themighty.com/2018/05/review-reusable-drinking-straws-disability/">having a disability and doing your part to help the environment are not mutually exclusive</a>.”</p>
<p>The anti-anti-straw arguments we take issue with are often either libertarian (hands off my straws) or pessimistic (this does not address the root cause of the problem) in nature. Some of these arguments are a mix of both.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-our-oceans-microplastics-pollute-rivers-and-lakes-too-94559">Beyond our oceans: Microplastics pollute rivers and lakes too</a>
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<p>A <a href="https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/terence-corcoran-the-best-defence-against-plastic-pollution-that-catherine-mckenna-will-hate?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1531311622">slew of journalists and writers</a> have recently put forward <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/environment/why-a-ban-on-plastic-straws-sucks/">counter-arguments</a> to interventions seeking to reduce ocean plastics. They write that targeting straws specifically will not make a significant difference to the ocean. </p>
<p>Quantitatively, sure, straws make up a small portion of the plastics that enter and contaminate the ocean (<a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-04-science-amount-straws-plastic-pollution.html">roughly four per cent of litter</a>). This does not mean, however, that straws aren’t worth addressing. </p>
<p>Why is a targeted effort towards four per cent of marine litter being attacked as useless or ineffective, when the posited alternative is no effort at all?</p>
<h2>Target “gateway plastic”</h2>
<p>Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup’s annual <a href="http://www.wwf.ca/newsroom/?uNewsID=27401">Dirty Dozen list</a> highlights the items most commonly found on <a href="https://www.shorelinecleanup.ca/">marine and freshwater shores</a>. Straws rank ninth, below cigarette butts, food packaging, bottle caps and plastic bags. </p>
<p>Other <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X16300665#f0015">studies have found similar contributions to marine litter from plastic straws</a>. The <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25513/state_plastics_WED.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">UNEP 2018 State of Plastics report</a> also ranks straws and stirrers in seventh place for plastics found in the environment. </p>
<p>However, these other plastics require an entirely different approach to mitigating their entry into the environment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228652/original/file-20180720-142432-1vln2sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228652/original/file-20180720-142432-1vln2sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228652/original/file-20180720-142432-1vln2sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228652/original/file-20180720-142432-1vln2sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228652/original/file-20180720-142432-1vln2sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228652/original/file-20180720-142432-1vln2sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228652/original/file-20180720-142432-1vln2sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Starbucks’ new lid features a teardrop-shaped opening about the size of a thumbprint. Its design has helped the company promise to go straw-less.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-announces-environmental-milestone">(Starbucks)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Should we focus on an outright ban on cigarettes with the same vigour as we have straws? Can we vilify single-use plastic bottle beverage industry players in the same manner? </p>
<p>Presumably, those who are anti-anti-straw would respond accordingly, if not an order of magnitude greater, to these kinds of petitions.</p>
<h2>War on straws</h2>
<p>Dune Ives, the executive director of the Lonely Whale Foundation, <a href="https://www.globalwildlife.org/2017/10/19/the-gateway-plastic/">has called straws “the gateway plastic”</a> for those on the verge of environmentalism. For example, something as mundane or “playful” as a straw can open up a larger, more serious conversation about plastic pollution, or global mass consumption even more broadly. </p>
<p>This point is both the crux of the “war on straws” and the crucial piece moving forward in the overall endeavour to reduce marine plastic pollution: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-break-up-with-plastics-using-behavioural-science-99741">changing the norm</a>. </p>
<p>Comparisons may also be made with plastic bag bans. For example, many <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301650">countries and jurisdictions around the world have successfully implemented plastic bag bans or taxes</a> to reduce plastic environmental pollution. </p>
<p>Like plastic straws, some groups suggest <a href="https://uspirg.org/reports/usf/trash-america">that because plastic bags are ultra-lightweight, they likely make negligible contributions to municipal waste</a>. These groups also claim that banning plastic bags is more about appearances and idealism than about protecting the environment. However, like plastic bag bans, the concept of eliminating or replacing single-use plastic (SUP) straws requires a revolution in consumer mentality.</p>
<h2>Changing habits</h2>
<p>There is no radical extreme call to immediately stop the production of plastic products. Indeed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/plastic-free-campaigns-dont-have-to-shock-or-shame-shoppers-are-already-on-board-98944">shaming plastic use has been seen as an ineffective way</a> to get more people on board. </p>
<p>Plastics are imperative in many contexts, including sterile packaging and disposable tools in medicine, reducing food spoilage and increasing food safety. The movement to remove SUP straws, or even bags, should consider these nuances, but it is far from destroying the foundation of modern society. </p>
<p>With about <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768">eight million to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic entering our oceans each year</a>, there is an urgent need to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17309967">address our pervasive plastic problem</a>. </p>
<p>We need a broad-scale and widespread approach that questions our throw-away culture, and the overwhelming trend to buy more, buy bigger and buy more often. Avoiding the use of a plastic straw may seem trivial, but it counts. </p>
<p>It may seem like a drop in the ocean, but what is an ocean anyway but many, many, drops?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Riley Schnurr receives funding from WWF-Canada through the Sobey Fund for Oceans. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Robert Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fast-food restaurants and coffee shops are banishing the straw. While it may seem like a small measure, your pessimism isn’t justified.Riley Schnurr, Graduate Student, Dalhousie UniversityTony Robert Walker, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/985652018-07-03T21:15:21Z2018-07-03T21:15:21ZHow to clean up our universal plastic tragedy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224992/original/file-20180626-112607-1oqu16h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plastic debris strewn across a beach.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beach_strewn_with_plastic_debris_(8080500982).jpg">(USFWS)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Twenty five years ago, I spent a summer removing plastic packing bands and plastic nets from 135 entangled Antarctic fur seals on Bird Island, South Georgia in the sub-Antarctic. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X96000537">Plastic marine waste discarded by the fishing industry</a> were the primary source of entanglements.</p>
<p>A quarter of a century later, plastic is still a huge problem. In the past month alone, we have seen <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/whale-dead-plastic-bags-thailand-animals/">dead whales wash ashore with their stomachs full of plastic bags</a>. </p>
<p>This ought to be a strong enough signal to trigger collective action to clean up and improve governance of the plastics that have become this century’s <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2018.00214/full">Tragedy of the Commons</a>. </p>
<p>Governments and individuals all need to reconsider how we use and dispose of our single-use plastics (SUPs). Within just two generations we have <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768">produced and discarded</a> so much plastic that we are now literally <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17309967">drowning in it</a>.</p>
<h2>Individual action</h2>
<p>Recently, a former colleague in Newfoundland was so fed up at staring at a pile of garbage dumped on nearby public property that she took it upon herself to clean it up. The result was almost a truckload of trash comprising five full garbage bags and other miscellaneous pieces, most of it SUPs. </p>
<p>We all use SUPs, not just those countries with the largest populations, and so we are all are culpable in contributing to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344918301368">global plastic pollution</a>. </p>
<p>Until recently, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-00933-6">China was the world’s largest importer of recyclable materials</a> (including plastics) from developed countries, such as Canada, the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/06/21/china-ban-plastic-waste-recycling/721879002/">United States</a> and European countries. But these imports have since been banned. </p>
<p>This has left many developed countries scrambling to figure out how to recycle or dispose of their SUPs, with many jurisdictions (from municipalities to entire countries) considering <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301650#bb0370">bans or fees on SUP bags</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-battle-to-ban-plastic-bags-94350">The battle to ban plastic bags</a>
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<p>Recently, Prince Edward Island took the big step to announce new legislation to make it <a href="http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/news/local/ban-of-single-use-plastic-bags-now-legislation-in-pei-216854/#.Wxt3Uyd6544.twitter">the first province to ban SUP shopping bags</a>. Seattle is the first major U.S. city to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/07/01/seattle-becomes-first-major-u-s-city-to-ban-straws/?utm_term=.6323b2c64a68">ban the use of plastic drinking straws</a>.</p>
<h2>Government support</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344918300612">Canada is planning to adopt a zero-waste strategy</a>, and we recently heard more about these details in the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2018/06/11/g7-ocean-plastic-charter-not-enough-advocates.html">non-binding G7 Ocean Plastics Charter</a>, which was agreed to by five of the seven participating nations and the European Union (EU). However, neither the United States nor Japan signed the voluntary agreement. </p>
<p>National and international organizations have also made recent announcements about how to reduce and improve recycling, but all have committed to widely varying time lines to achieve these goals. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-international-plastics-treaty-could-avert-a-silent-spring-for-our-seas-90990">An international plastics treaty could avert a 'Silent Spring' for our seas</a>
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<p>For example, the United Nations Environment Programme (with support from 42 governments), declared a fight against plastics, announcing their global <a href="http://web.unep.org/about/majorgroups/news/clean-seas-global-campaign-marine-litter">Clean Seas campaign</a> in 2017 to eliminate major sources of marine debris by 2022. </p>
<p>The following year, the European Commission (EC) adopted the first <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/news/first-ever-europe-wide-strategy-plastics-2018-jan-16_en">Europe-wide strategy on plastics</a>, aiming for all plastic packaging in the EU to be reusable or recyclable — but not until 2030. </p>
<p>Lagging behind the international community, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/plastic-waste-uk-theresa-may-2042-vow-commitment-a8152446.html">United Kingdom announced it will eliminate “avoidable” plastic waste by 2042</a> — almost a generation away!</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-reducing-waste/consultations/moving-toward-zero-plastic-waste.html">Canada has also been soliciting comments and ideas on ways to reduce plastic pollution and improve recycling</a>. </p>
<h2>Corporations lead the way</h2>
<p>With governments setting unambitious targets, it seems that large corporations are now showing leadership by listening to consumers who are demanding less SUPs in their packing and food containers. </p>
<p>Recently, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44492352">McDonald’s announced that it would replace plastic straws with paper ones in all of its U.K. and Ireland restaurants, as of September 2018</a>. This strategy may soon be rolled out in other jurisdictions. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ikea-phase-out-plastic-1.4698132">IKEA has also committed to eliminating all SUP products</a> from its home furnishing range by 2020, including plastic straws, plates, cups, freezer bags, garbage bags and plastic-coated paper plates and cups.</p>
<p>Why has it taken so long to tackle this wicked problem? </p>
<p>Sure, the plastics industry has something to lose, and maybe governments also lack the will and technology to make the transition sooner? </p>
<p>But time is running out. </p>
<p>I’m just glad that the Romans invented viaducts and straight roads instead of SUPs, as we likely wouldn’t be here today if they had. Giving up a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-battle-to-ban-plastic-bags-94350?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterbutton">plastic straw, stirrer or bag</a> might not be so bad after all. </p>
<p>If I have to choose between “<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/planetorplastic/">Planet or Plastic</a>”, I know which I’ll pick. What about you?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Robert Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We’re drowning in plastics. With governments setting un-ambitious targets, corporations are now listening to consumers who are demanding less plastic packaging and food containers.Tony Robert Walker, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.