No plastic straws in our drinks and cocktails

No plastic straws: In the EU alone, more than 36 billion plastic straws are estimated to be thrown away every year after single use. That’s far too much. What we want to say: It’s high time to avoid plastic waste. We’ve already been doing this since last summer and no longer use plastic straws for our drinks and cocktails. Figures on plastic waste vary, but one thing is certain: They are definitely too high. Conservative estimates suggest 8 million tonnes. This refers to plastic that ends up in the sea, where it poisons marine life and becomes part of a dangerous cycle. 8 million tonnes is not the total amount involved, but the plastic that reaches the oceans every year. To put this into perspective: A fully loaded 40-tonne truck carries around 25 tonnes. That means around 320,000 truckloads of plastic waste end up in the world’s oceans each year. This waste destroys ecosystems and threatens the lives of marine animals around the globe—directly and indirectly. It is estimated that 100,000 marine animals die each year because they get caught in waste. The EU wants to significantly reduce waste in the sea. To this end, it is encouraging bans on many single-use plastic products that are most frequently found on beaches. While Germany, with 37.4 kilograms of plastic packaging waste per capita per year, does not reach Ireland’s 60 kilograms (figures from 2015), it is still far too high. Especially since the claim that plastic bags are recyclable does not hold up in practice. Even if they are disposed of in the organic waste bin, they still have to be sorted out during highly effective thermal composting processes, as they do not decompose within the usual timeframes. Islands of waste and plastic Islands of waste and plastic have long since become a reality in our oceans. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers 1.6 million square kilometres—four times the size of Germany. (Scientific Reports: Lebreton et al., 2018)