Plastic Straw Bans Won’t Save Oceans: ‘We’re Trading a Lot for Nothing’

The Washington Times cited CEI’s Angela Logomasini on Starbucks’ recent plastic straw ban.

“It’s a symbolic effort that isn’t going to help anything,” said Angela Logomasini, senior fellow at the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute. “We’re trading a lot for nothing in return.”

She pointed to a 2017 study by German researchers in the journal Environmental Science & Technology that found 10 rivers in Asia and Africa are responsible for 88 to 95 percent of the plastic debris found in the world’s oceans.

“The concern is about plastics in the ocean, which is a real concern, but banning plastic straws isn’t going to fix it because they’re not the source of the problem,” Ms. Logomasini said. “The problem is a disposal problem. Most of it is in Asia and Africa because they have open dumps and they pour tons of trash into the ocean. They don’t have the proper disposal methods. If you dispose of something properly, it’s not a problem.”

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