RESEARCH STARTER

Plastic Straws: Overview

Plastic straws have become a focal point in discussions about environmental sustainability and waste management. Since their rise in popularity in the mid-twentieth century, concerns have emerged regarding their role in the growing issue of plastic pollution, which poses significant risks to both land and marine ecosystems. Environmentalists argue that the staggering number of single-use plastic straws contributes to the accumulation of waste, with estimates suggesting that Americans use 500 million straws daily. In response to these concerns, several cities and businesses in the United States have begun to implement bans or restrictions on plastic straws, promoting alternatives made from biodegradable materials or encouraging the use of reusable options.

However, the debate around plastic straws is complex, particularly in relation to their necessity for individuals with disabilities who rely on them as adaptive tools. This aspect has sparked conversations about the balance between environmental initiatives and the needs of marginalized communities. Legislation such as California's Assembly Bill No. 1884, which mandates that restaurants only provide plastic straws upon request, illustrates the ongoing efforts to navigate this multifaceted issue. The discussion surrounding plastic straws not only highlights environmental concerns but also sheds light on broader societal values, emphasizing the need for inclusive solutions to address the challenges of plastic waste.

Full Article

Introduction

Since the late twentieth century, single-use, disposable plastic items have been a concern among environmentalists, who noted that widely used items such as plastic bags and disposable plastic cutlery could take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills. They likewise called attention to improper disposal of plastic products, which led to the widespread presence of plastic in both land and marine environments, where it was found to harm wildlife. In the late 2010s, environmentalists became particularly concerned about the widespread use of disposable plastic straws, items that had become ubiquitous in US restaurants and quick-serve establishments since the mid-twentieth century. In response to such concerns, a number of US cities and states considered banning or restricting the distribution of plastic straws in restaurants, while major businesses likewise replaced single-use plastic straws with alternative options.

As the proposed laws and policies concerning single-use plastic straws became the subject of extensive discussion in the media, an intense debate arose surrounding the issue. While those skeptical of the efficacy or appropriateness of plastic straw bans expressed a variety of viewpoints, perhaps the most vital debate about the issue was that between environmentalists and advocates for people with disabilities. Advocates of banning or limiting the distribution of plastic straws argued that single-use straws contribute significantly to the accumulation of plastic waste in landfills and the environment and are harmful to both humans and wildlife. However, some opponents of plastic straw bans argued that disposable straws are a vital tool for many people with disabilities and that eliminating or replacing them could harm such individuals. They likewise argued that introducing opt-in policies for straw distribution or requiring people with disabilities to supply their own straws placed a significant burden upon that population.

Understanding the Discussion

Assembly Bill No. 1884: California state legislation, signed into law in September 2018, that prohibited all full-service restaurants from providing customers with single-use plastic straws unless asked.

Biodegradable: Able to be broken down by microorganisms.

Microplastics: Tiny pieces of plastic, less than five millimeters across, often created as larger plastic items break down.

Plastic: A synthetic substance typically composed of petroleum-based materials that can be molded into a wide range of reusable and disposable products.

Polypropylene: A form of plastic commonly used in straws.

Single-use plastic straw: A straw composed of plastic and intended to be disposed of after one use, as opposed to a reusable straw.

History

Since the late nineteenth century, products manufactured out of plastic have played a major role in the everyday lives of people in the United States and around the world. After World War II, manufacturers began to create and market a vast range of plastic items for everyday purposes, including disposable items that could be discarded after a single use. Plastic drinking straws were introduced in the 1960s and soon became popular throughout the United States due to their disposability, low cost, and flexible and durable nature. The new straws replaced older implements such as paper straws, which were similarly disposable but costlier and less durable. Alongside numerous other items made of plastic or containing plastic elements, including beverage bottles, diapers, shopping and trash bags, and a variety of other fixtures of daily life, plastic straws became part of the United States’ substantial production of plastic, which according to the US Environmental Protection Agency resulted in the generation of 35.6 million tons of plastic in the United States in 2018. That same year, 3.09 million tons of plastic were recycled in the United States, 5.6 million tons were combusted (burned), and 26.9 million tons were landfilled.

As plastic products became increasingly widespread throughout the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first, concerns arose about the effects that the large amount of plastic being produced and discarded was having on the environment, both on land and at sea. While some forms of plastic are biodegradable and can therefore be broken down by organisms such as bacteria, many common plastics are not. Thus, the time it takes for a plastic item to degrade in a landfill or another environment varies substantially depending on the type of plastic, ranging from a matter of years or decades to possibly never.

In addition, scientists and environmental activists were particularly concerned about the amount of plastic waste that had made its way into the ocean. According to the United Nations (UN), by 2019, 13 million metric tons of plastic waste were entering the ocean worldwide each year. One effect of plastic entering the ocean was the creation of floating patches of waste, such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is composed primarily of plastic waste more than twice as wide as the state of Texas and located in the North Pacific Ocean. Upon entering the ocean, plastic waste has the potential to hurt or kill marine life, which could become entangled in items such as bags or six-pack rings or could consume harmful plastic substances.

Concerned individuals and organizations also worried about the potential harm caused by microplastics, or very small pieces of plastic that are created when a larger plastic item degrades into smaller pieces. As microplastics are at times consumed by sea life that may go on to be eaten by humans, some evidence has shown that microplastics are entering the human body, the long-term effects of which remain unknown.

In response to such concerns, environmental activists and advocacy groups led a variety of initiatives to reduce the manufacture, consumption, and disposal of plastic products. In addition to promoting recycling of plastics, groups and individuals attempted to encourage the public to cut down on their use of disposable plastic items. An early target of such groups were plastic bags, particularly those used to bag consumers’ purchases in stores. In response to such efforts, the city of San Francisco, California, banned plastic bags in 2007. Other cities later implemented similar policies, including taxes on single-use bags, with the goal of decreasing the use of such bags and promoting the use of reusable bags.

Following such developments, environmental organizations turned their focus to plastic straws, another common—and commonly discarded—item found in many Americans’ everyday lives. Environmentalists often cite an estimate that Americans use 500 million straws every day, a number determined in 2011 by then-nine-year-old environmentalist Milo Cress based on data gleaned from straw manufacturers. While the accuracy of that statistic was subject to debate, it was widely repeated and served to emphasize the sheer number of single-use plastic straws that might find their way into landfills or the ocean. The issue drew further attention in 2015 after a video showing a sea turtle with a straw stuck in its nose spread across the internet.

Plastic Straws Today

Efforts to reduce or eliminate the use of plastic straws came to the forefront in 2017 and 2018, as Seattle, San Francisco, and other major US cities, along with corporations such as Starbucks Coffee and American Airlines, sought to decrease plastic consumption by banning or otherwise restricting single-use plastic straws. Approaches to addressing the issue varied widely between locations and companies. In some cases, businesses sought to introduce alternative disposable straws made of biodegradable materials such as paper, or new strawless cup lids, while others promoted the use of reusable straws made of metal, silicone, wood, or glass.

In September 2018, California became the first state to pass statewide legislation concerning plastic straws with Assembly Bill No. 1884, which prohibited full-service restaurants from providing plastic straws to customers automatically, which had been customary at many restaurants. Rather, the law stipulated that customers could instead request straws if desired. The following year, twenty-two state legislatures considered plastic-straw legislation, ranging from outright bans to on-request bills to preemption bills stating that cities could not regulate plastics themselves. By 2025, seven additional states had implemented legislation similar to California. For its part, the Plastics Industry Association backed on-request legislation.

As attempts to eliminate single-use plastic straws progressed, a debate arose regarding whether banning plastic straws is helpful, effective, and appropriate. Some opponents expressed skepticism about large companies’ motives in making such changes, while others viewed plastic straw bans as part of an ongoing cultural battle between American liberals and conservatives. Some critics took issue with replacement options, such as paper straws, which research later showed to contain higher levels of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) than plastic straws, or bioplastic straws, which often require special facilities for composting. Some anti-plastic advocates thought such bans were too narrowly applied or amounted to feel-good measures lacking significant impact on plastic pollution overall.

Perhaps the most substantial debate, however, arose between environmentalists and advocates for people with disabilities. While the former asserted that plastic straws are harmful to the environment and to all organisms living in it, disability activists and advocacy groups argued that plastic straws are necessary adaptive devices for many individuals with disabilities and must not be eliminated. The intense debate highlighted the complex nature of balancing environmental activism with the needs and rights of members of marginalized communities.

Many see the movement to ban or restrict single-use plastic straws as having spurred broader efforts to address other common single-use plastic items and raised public awareness of the interplay of corporate interests, consumer demand, and government regulation. Beginning in March 2022, the UN Environment Programme spearheaded negotiations toward a legally binding international anti-plastic pollution treaty. The following year, the US Interior Department under Democratic president Joe Biden released a plan describing how it would phase out single-use plastics on public lands within a decade, an effort House Republicans sought to thwart. That ideal was negated in 2025, when Republican president Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the use of paper straws in federal government facilities, in favor of continued use of platic straws.

These essays and any opinions, information, or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.


Bibliography

Bhathal, Harvin. “Did Plastic Straw Bans Work? Yes, but Not in the Way You’d Think.” Grist, 4 Aug. 2023, grist.org/culture/plastic-straw-bans-single-use-plastic-pollution-impact/. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Brueck, Hilary. “The Real Reason So Many Cities and Businesses Are Banning Plastic Straws Has Nothing to Do with Straws at All.” Business Insider, 22 Oct. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/plastic-straw-ban-why-are-there-so-many-2018-7. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Chokshi, Niraj. “How a 9-Year-Old Boy’s Statistic Shaped a Debate on Straws.” The New York Times, 19 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-ban-fact-check-nyt.html. Accessed 12 June 2025.

de Guzman, Chad. "What to Know About the History and Controversy Over Plastic and Paper Straws." Time, 12 Feb. 2025, time.com/7221487/trump-executive-order-paper-straw-ban-government-plastic-environment-explainer/. Accessed 12 June 2025.

“End Plastics.” Earth Day Network, www.earthday.org/plasticban. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Gibbens, Sarah. “A Brief History of How Plastic Straws Took Over the World.” National Geographic, 2 Jan. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/news-plastic-drinking-straw-history-ban. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Haggerty, Meredith. “The Plastic Straw Ban Sucked. We Still Need Regulations to Save the Planet.” Vox, 27 Dec. 2019, www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/27/21030090/straw-ban-environmental-regulation-plastic-ocean. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Mondeaux, Cami. “House Passes Measure Blocking Biden Administration Ban on Plastic Straws.” Washington Examiner, 3 Nov. 2023, www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2446457/house-passes-measure-blocking-biden-administration-ban-on-plastic-straws. Accessed 12 June 2025.

O’Neil, Luke. “How Plastic Straws Became the Latest Battleground in the US Culture Wars.” The Guardian, 3 Aug. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/03/plastic-straws-became-the-latest-victim-in-the-us-culture-wars. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Parker, Laura. “We Made Plastic. We Depend on It. Now We’re Drowning in It.” National Geographic, June 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis. AccAccessed 12 June 2025.

Parker, Laura. “The World's Plastic Pollution Crisis Explained .” National Geographic, 19 Oct. 2023, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-plastic-pollution-crisis-explained/. Accessed 12 June 2025.

“Plastics.” General Assembly of the United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/pga/73/plastics. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Picheta, Rob. “Microplastics Found in Human Stools, Research Finds.” CNN, 23 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/23/health/microplastics-human-stool-pollution-intl/index.html. Accessed 12 June 2025.

“Plastics: Material-Specific Data.” EPA, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 21 Nov. 2024, www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Rainey, James. “How Business Groups Are Fighting a Wave of Anti-Plastic Straw Laws.” NBC News, 1 Mar. 2019, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-business-groups-are-fighting-wave-anti-plastic-straw-laws-n977196. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Full Article

Introduction

Since the late twentieth century, single-use, disposable plastic items have been a concern among environmentalists, who noted that widely used items such as plastic bags and disposable plastic cutlery could take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills. They likewise called attention to improper disposal of plastic products, which led to the widespread presence of plastic in both land and marine environments, where it was found to harm wildlife. In the late 2010s, environmentalists became particularly concerned about the widespread use of disposable plastic straws, items that had become ubiquitous in US restaurants and quick-serve establishments since the mid-twentieth century. In response to such concerns, a number of US cities and states considered banning or restricting the distribution of plastic straws in restaurants, while major businesses likewise replaced single-use plastic straws with alternative options.

As the proposed laws and policies concerning single-use plastic straws became the subject of extensive discussion in the media, an intense debate arose surrounding the issue. While those skeptical of the efficacy or appropriateness of plastic straw bans expressed a variety of viewpoints, perhaps the most vital debate about the issue was that between environmentalists and advocates for people with disabilities. Advocates of banning or limiting the distribution of plastic straws argued that single-use straws contribute significantly to the accumulation of plastic waste in landfills and the environment and are harmful to both humans and wildlife. However, some opponents of plastic straw bans argued that disposable straws are a vital tool for many people with disabilities and that eliminating or replacing them could harm such individuals. They likewise argued that introducing opt-in policies for straw distribution or requiring people with disabilities to supply their own straws placed a significant burden upon that population.

Understanding the Discussion

Assembly Bill No. 1884: California state legislation, signed into law in September 2018, that prohibited all full-service restaurants from providing customers with single-use plastic straws unless asked.

Biodegradable: Able to be broken down by microorganisms.

Microplastics: Tiny pieces of plastic, less than five millimeters across, often created as larger plastic items break down.

Plastic: A synthetic substance typically composed of petroleum-based materials that can be molded into a wide range of reusable and disposable products.

Polypropylene: A form of plastic commonly used in straws.

Single-use plastic straw: A straw composed of plastic and intended to be disposed of after one use, as opposed to a reusable straw.

History

Since the late nineteenth century, products manufactured out of plastic have played a major role in the everyday lives of people in the United States and around the world. After World War II, manufacturers began to create and market a vast range of plastic items for everyday purposes, including disposable items that could be discarded after a single use. Plastic drinking straws were introduced in the 1960s and soon became popular throughout the United States due to their disposability, low cost, and flexible and durable nature. The new straws replaced older implements such as paper straws, which were similarly disposable but costlier and less durable. Alongside numerous other items made of plastic or containing plastic elements, including beverage bottles, diapers, shopping and trash bags, and a variety of other fixtures of daily life, plastic straws became part of the United States’ substantial production of plastic, which according to the US Environmental Protection Agency resulted in the generation of 35.6 million tons of plastic in the United States in 2018. That same year, 3.09 million tons of plastic were recycled in the United States, 5.6 million tons were combusted (burned), and 26.9 million tons were landfilled.

As plastic products became increasingly widespread throughout the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first, concerns arose about the effects that the large amount of plastic being produced and discarded was having on the environment, both on land and at sea. While some forms of plastic are biodegradable and can therefore be broken down by organisms such as bacteria, many common plastics are not. Thus, the time it takes for a plastic item to degrade in a landfill or another environment varies substantially depending on the type of plastic, ranging from a matter of years or decades to possibly never.

In addition, scientists and environmental activists were particularly concerned about the amount of plastic waste that had made its way into the ocean. According to the United Nations (UN), by 2019, 13 million metric tons of plastic waste were entering the ocean worldwide each year. One effect of plastic entering the ocean was the creation of floating patches of waste, such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is composed primarily of plastic waste more than twice as wide as the state of Texas and located in the North Pacific Ocean. Upon entering the ocean, plastic waste has the potential to hurt or kill marine life, which could become entangled in items such as bags or six-pack rings or could consume harmful plastic substances.

Concerned individuals and organizations also worried about the potential harm caused by microplastics, or very small pieces of plastic that are created when a larger plastic item degrades into smaller pieces. As microplastics are at times consumed by sea life that may go on to be eaten by humans, some evidence has shown that microplastics are entering the human body, the long-term effects of which remain unknown.

In response to such concerns, environmental activists and advocacy groups led a variety of initiatives to reduce the manufacture, consumption, and disposal of plastic products. In addition to promoting recycling of plastics, groups and individuals attempted to encourage the public to cut down on their use of disposable plastic items. An early target of such groups were plastic bags, particularly those used to bag consumers’ purchases in stores. In response to such efforts, the city of San Francisco, California, banned plastic bags in 2007. Other cities later implemented similar policies, including taxes on single-use bags, with the goal of decreasing the use of such bags and promoting the use of reusable bags.

Following such developments, environmental organizations turned their focus to plastic straws, another common—and commonly discarded—item found in many Americans’ everyday lives. Environmentalists often cite an estimate that Americans use 500 million straws every day, a number determined in 2011 by then-nine-year-old environmentalist Milo Cress based on data gleaned from straw manufacturers. While the accuracy of that statistic was subject to debate, it was widely repeated and served to emphasize the sheer number of single-use plastic straws that might find their way into landfills or the ocean. The issue drew further attention in 2015 after a video showing a sea turtle with a straw stuck in its nose spread across the internet.

Plastic Straws Today

Efforts to reduce or eliminate the use of plastic straws came to the forefront in 2017 and 2018, as Seattle, San Francisco, and other major US cities, along with corporations such as Starbucks Coffee and American Airlines, sought to decrease plastic consumption by banning or otherwise restricting single-use plastic straws. Approaches to addressing the issue varied widely between locations and companies. In some cases, businesses sought to introduce alternative disposable straws made of biodegradable materials such as paper, or new strawless cup lids, while others promoted the use of reusable straws made of metal, silicone, wood, or glass.

In September 2018, California became the first state to pass statewide legislation concerning plastic straws with Assembly Bill No. 1884, which prohibited full-service restaurants from providing plastic straws to customers automatically, which had been customary at many restaurants. Rather, the law stipulated that customers could instead request straws if desired. The following year, twenty-two state legislatures considered plastic-straw legislation, ranging from outright bans to on-request bills to preemption bills stating that cities could not regulate plastics themselves. By 2025, seven additional states had implemented legislation similar to California. For its part, the Plastics Industry Association backed on-request legislation.

As attempts to eliminate single-use plastic straws progressed, a debate arose regarding whether banning plastic straws is helpful, effective, and appropriate. Some opponents expressed skepticism about large companies’ motives in making such changes, while others viewed plastic straw bans as part of an ongoing cultural battle between American liberals and conservatives. Some critics took issue with replacement options, such as paper straws, which research later showed to contain higher levels of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) than plastic straws, or bioplastic straws, which often require special facilities for composting. Some anti-plastic advocates thought such bans were too narrowly applied or amounted to feel-good measures lacking significant impact on plastic pollution overall.

Perhaps the most substantial debate, however, arose between environmentalists and advocates for people with disabilities. While the former asserted that plastic straws are harmful to the environment and to all organisms living in it, disability activists and advocacy groups argued that plastic straws are necessary adaptive devices for many individuals with disabilities and must not be eliminated. The intense debate highlighted the complex nature of balancing environmental activism with the needs and rights of members of marginalized communities.

Many see the movement to ban or restrict single-use plastic straws as having spurred broader efforts to address other common single-use plastic items and raised public awareness of the interplay of corporate interests, consumer demand, and government regulation. Beginning in March 2022, the UN Environment Programme spearheaded negotiations toward a legally binding international anti-plastic pollution treaty. The following year, the US Interior Department under Democratic president Joe Biden released a plan describing how it would phase out single-use plastics on public lands within a decade, an effort House Republicans sought to thwart. That ideal was negated in 2025, when Republican president Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the use of paper straws in federal government facilities, in favor of continued use of platic straws.

These essays and any opinions, information, or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.


Bibliography

Bhathal, Harvin. “Did Plastic Straw Bans Work? Yes, but Not in the Way You’d Think.” Grist, 4 Aug. 2023, grist.org/culture/plastic-straw-bans-single-use-plastic-pollution-impact/. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Brueck, Hilary. “The Real Reason So Many Cities and Businesses Are Banning Plastic Straws Has Nothing to Do with Straws at All.” Business Insider, 22 Oct. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/plastic-straw-ban-why-are-there-so-many-2018-7. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Chokshi, Niraj. “How a 9-Year-Old Boy’s Statistic Shaped a Debate on Straws.” The New York Times, 19 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-ban-fact-check-nyt.html. Accessed 12 June 2025.

de Guzman, Chad. "What to Know About the History and Controversy Over Plastic and Paper Straws." Time, 12 Feb. 2025, time.com/7221487/trump-executive-order-paper-straw-ban-government-plastic-environment-explainer/. Accessed 12 June 2025.

“End Plastics.” Earth Day Network, www.earthday.org/plasticban. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Gibbens, Sarah. “A Brief History of How Plastic Straws Took Over the World.” National Geographic, 2 Jan. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/news-plastic-drinking-straw-history-ban. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Haggerty, Meredith. “The Plastic Straw Ban Sucked. We Still Need Regulations to Save the Planet.” Vox, 27 Dec. 2019, www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/27/21030090/straw-ban-environmental-regulation-plastic-ocean. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Mondeaux, Cami. “House Passes Measure Blocking Biden Administration Ban on Plastic Straws.” Washington Examiner, 3 Nov. 2023, www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2446457/house-passes-measure-blocking-biden-administration-ban-on-plastic-straws. Accessed 12 June 2025.

O’Neil, Luke. “How Plastic Straws Became the Latest Battleground in the US Culture Wars.” The Guardian, 3 Aug. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/03/plastic-straws-became-the-latest-victim-in-the-us-culture-wars. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Parker, Laura. “We Made Plastic. We Depend on It. Now We’re Drowning in It.” National Geographic, June 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis. AccAccessed 12 June 2025.

Parker, Laura. “The World's Plastic Pollution Crisis Explained .” National Geographic, 19 Oct. 2023, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-plastic-pollution-crisis-explained/. Accessed 12 June 2025.

“Plastics.” General Assembly of the United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/pga/73/plastics. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Picheta, Rob. “Microplastics Found in Human Stools, Research Finds.” CNN, 23 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/23/health/microplastics-human-stool-pollution-intl/index.html. Accessed 12 June 2025.

“Plastics: Material-Specific Data.” EPA, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 21 Nov. 2024, www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data. Accessed 12 June 2025.

Rainey, James. “How Business Groups Are Fighting a Wave of Anti-Plastic Straw Laws.” NBC News, 1 Mar. 2019, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-business-groups-are-fighting-wave-anti-plastic-straw-laws-n977196. Accessed 12 June 2025.

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