People Make It So Hard to Ditch Plastic Straws

Scott Duke Kominers

Article | Bloomberg Opinion

People Make It So Hard to Ditch Plastic Straws

Abstract

Rarely has a minor consumer product received more vilification than the plastic straw. As a symbol of human wastefulness and our careless disregard for the environment, straws are the near-perfect villain. You use a plastic straw once and toss it, but it stays with us forever, sitting in a landfill, floating in the sea or harming wildlife. That's why some local governments like that of New York City have stopped allowing them, along with other single-use plastics. This seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do, even though plastic straws comprise only a small part of the total volume of plastic disposed of each year.

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Consumer Behavior;

Format: Electronic

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Citation:

Kominers, Scott Duke. "People Make It So Hard to Ditch Plastic Straws." Bloomberg Opinion (July 15, 2019).

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People Make It So Hard to Ditch Plastic Straws

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