Pick a Straw

How much do conservatives love plastic? Let me count the ways.

As the MAGA types warn that a Harris Administration could be a threat to plastic straws, I’d like to remind readers that the Iowa Republicans have been way ahead when it comes to plasticphelia. They love plastic so much that they brought back Styrofoam cups after the Democrats had replaced them with paper cups at the Statehouse in Des Moines. Styrofoam can leak styrene, a neurotoxin (brain poison), especially under hot conditions. It might explain a few things. It doesn’t have to be in a cup to give you a little zap of brain-kill—even those foam peanuts can cause anxiety, and not simply from the mess.

Later, the exalted Republicans took the bold move to save plastic bags from extinction. Consequently, you can have the delight of seeing plastic bags hanging from Iowa fence rows. I wrote about it here and later, even wrote a novel in which people living in exile wear clothes made from plastic bags.

Plastic is cheap. A little oil makes lots of plastic. And it has fueled our consumer culture. But of course, it’s clogging our bodies as well as our oceans. It even plugs up storm sewers and contributes to flooding.  In the US, 500 million plastic straws are used each day and while they are not the most prevalent plastic pollution, they are one of the most commonly visible types of plastic litter.

I have an above ground swimming pool with a plastic liner. We play in it with plastic toys. Recently, I noticed tiny plastic fibers floating in it. The raft was shedding. As much as I dislike straws and plastic bags, pool toys are also a problem since they are not recyclable. Even recyclable plastic rarely gets recycled. I used a sock over the skimmer to get the fine plastic fibers out of the pool because I didn’t want them to clog my filter system. The insoluble plastic coated the sock. I could only wonder what it would do to an intestine. Of course, scientists have been studying this. Not surprisingly, tiny plastic particles indeed do coat intestines and affect gut bacteria, decreasing some types such as Bifidobacterium, a probiotic, and increasing others associated with conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome. Straws warm or cool a drink slightly to make it more appealing to our taste buds. They are convenient, too. But is it worth the intestinal challenge to suck instead of sip?

Is it a given to use paper straws? Paper isn’t the cleanest material to produce. Trees are pulverized and cooked slowly (digested) with chemicals such as sulfite to break them down. Smelly sulfur containing gasses are released in the process.  It uses chlorine to bleach it and is the third largest source of pollution world-wide. Paper causes deforestation and paper straws also release the toxins known as PFAS.  These substances are used to coat paper food products to make them last longer. The good news here is that the Biden administration cracked down on PFAS in paper and other food packaging and soon to be safer products should be hitting the shelves. (more here) The best option is reusable straws, or maybe, as I decided, no straw at all, at least not for today, which is also my opinion of our conservative Iowa legislature. Not today.