Straw Time

There is finally an international movement against the most silent of killers – single use plastic straws.

You may know this killer. You may even trust this killer, calmly sending liquid to your mouth without a fuss. But beneath the innocent façade beats the dark heart of a tyrant.

After a study found that Americans use 500 million straws a day (now that is a lot of daiquiris) the cities of Vancouver, New York, San Francisco and London are all now considering banning single use plastic straws.

McDonalds also got in the game, which may lead to one of those weird, unexpected times when a corporation’s environmentalist cause also saves them money.

There’s only one problem though. The 500 million figure was initially put forward by a nine year old kid from Colorado, Milo Cress, who was completing a school project.

In case you thought you have accomplished things in life, a nine year old kid is bringing governments around the world to their knees.

Now, I am not angry at the kid. Mainly because I’m sure if he put his mind to it he could have international governments kill me. But I am angry at governments who see one study that allows them to posture about how much they care about the environment without doing their due research.

And I’m also angry because there was a lot of policy proposals that could have come out of my Year 2 book report on Spot Goes To The Park and none were considered.