Wonderfully and not surprisingly, Hawaii is getting more serious about ocean pollution, including plastic straws. 500 million straws are used every day in the US but plastic straws are too lightweight for most recyclers to handle. One source I read said most straws end up in the ocean.

Since we’ve been in Hawaii this year, there’s usually been no straw or it’s a paper straw in our drinks. I recently heard that a plastic, single-use straw takes 5 seconds to make, 5 minutes to use, and 500 years to breakdown. But, according to strawlessocean.org, when it “breaks down,” it breaks into microplastics that harm the birds and fish, i.e., a 50% mortality rate.

So, it’s been a light bulb moment for me to take this pollution seriously. And the very very least I can do when eating at a restaurant is remember to say, “No plastic straw, please.” Join me?