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Politics and Activism

Before You Use That Plastic Straw, Think Of The Sea Turtles

Do you really need that plastic straw?

Emma Mariano

Jun 19, 2018

University of Rhode Island

109

Pexels

Plastic straws are one of the most useless things in the whole entire world. While they make drinking out of glasses somewhat convenient, they are really inconvenient for sea turtles. Straws made out of plastic cannot be recycled which means that they have to get thrown in the trash. When straws are thrown out and make their way to the ocean, where a lot of trash is dumped, they can get stuck in the nostrils of sea turtles.

Every day in the United States, 500,000,000 plastic straws are used. Think about that number for a moment. Now think about how many of those straws could end up in one of the Earth's oceans. Every time a plastic straw finds its way to the ocean it can become a hazard to a sea turtle.

The decline of sea turtles can be very harmful to the ocean's ecosystem. They play a vital role in maintaining the food chain of the ocean, especially keeping the seagrass in the ocean at the right level. If seagrass becomes too high it can mess up life on the ocean floor and in reefs.

Sea turtles also play a huge role in maintaining the vegetation of dunes. When they lay eggs, the nutrients of those eggs go back into the vegetation of dunes meaning the whole beach becomes much more of a livable habitat to the animals that live there. Dunes, as you may know, are constantly eroding because of human presence on beaches. If those dunes go away the beach ecosystem will be ruined.

It is so easy to not use plastic straws. Starbucks has even taken the initiative to switch to lids that do not require a straw to drink coffee amongst other drinks. It does not take a lot to just sip a drink without a lid, it also means not putting another sea turtle in danger.

If you do happen to use a plastic straw, do not recycle it! Make sure before you throw it in the trash that you cut it into smaller pieces because it will have less of a chance to harm a sea turtle in smaller pieces. There are also alternatives to plastic straws such as paper or metal straws that you can purchase to use over and over again.

Since we are beings of Earth, we should constantly be thinking about what our impact will be. We should leave nothing but footprints.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.

Health and Wellness

5 Ways To Bring Positivity Into Your Life When All You Want To Do Is Drown In Self-Pity

It seems like life has been serving up more bad than good and in all honesty, the only thing you want to do is crawl under your covers and hide from the rest of the world.

Grand Canyon University

339

5 Ways To Bring Positivity Into Your Life When All You Want To Do Is Drown In Self-Pity

Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash

The first two weeks of classes have come to an end and they have been anything BUT easy. It seems like life has been serving up more bad than good and in all honesty, the only thing you want to do is crawl under your covers and hide from the rest of the world.

Although this seems like the best solution, it is also the easy way out. Take it from the girl who took basically a whole week off from her life because she just could not handle everything that was being thrown at her. This caused her to feel extremely lonely and even more stressed out for being behind in classes that JUST began.

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self-pity

Entertainment

11 Things We Learned From Brooke Davis

"What's more important? What we become or how we become it?"

St. Thomas Aquinas College

185

"She was fiercely independent, Brooke Davis. Brilliant, and beautiful, and brave. In two years she had grown more than anyone I had ever known. Brooke Davis is going to change the world someday, and I'm not sure she even knows it." - Lucas Scott, An Unkindness of Ravens

Brooke Davis of the hit show One Tree Hill was the it girl - she had it all, or so we thought. She started out as a stuck-up, shallow, spoiled, head cheerleader who didn't have her life together. She slept around a lot and loved to party - sounds like your typical high school teenager right? Wrong. B. Davis had so much more to offer. Caring, loyal, and outspoken, she has taught us some valuable lessons throughout the 9 seasons that OTH was on the air:

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Relationships

11 Signs You Have An Honorary Roommate

Make yourself at home, why don't you?

Appalachian State University

2043

Rachel Zadeits

For some of us, coming to college was the first time we ever had to share a room. It was a big change, but a fun one. As you meet more and more people over the course of your college career, it seems to be a pattern that you will at some point have that one friend that doesn't live with you, but acts like they do. We call those people, "Honorary Roommates" and here are 11 signs you have one in your life.