An Effort To Save The Earth: How To Recycle Plastic Drinking Straws 🥤

How To Recycle Plastic Drinking Straws 🥤: Single-use plastic drinking straws have become far too rampant in the world’s oceans.

In Australia alone, people use 10 million straws every day, which then adds up to 3.5 billion a year. Approximately 8 million tonnes of plastic drinking straws go to the oceans, pestering the aquamarine environment.

Now you might be thinking, “can plastic straws be recycled in Australia?” Well, in this article we’ll take a look if plastic drinking straws are recyclable in a conscious effort to maintain Earth’s cleanliness!

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Why are plastic drinking straws bad, anyway?

Imagine a tiny single-use item being thrown into any body of water and multiply it by 3.5 billion in a year – sounds kind of harsh, right?

Now imagine those plastic drinking straws floating across the oceans, taking up to hundreds of years to break down.

In these thousand years, many aquatic animals from plankton to whales accidentally consume these microplastics, therefore blocking the digestive tracts of marine life – causing them to lose appetite, starve, and ultimately die. Count on the fact that these plastic drinking straws are thrown into the ocean daily. Sounds scary, right?

If that doesn’t get you alarmed, I don’t know what else does.

Why do we keep using plastic drinking straws, anyway? We only use it once for about 20 minutes and dispose of it afterwards. For a short time of usage, it sure does take longer to get rid of it. It’s almost funny how something as simple as drinking through a cup without a straw can be quite a hassle for humans and have to resort to drinking with plastic drinking straws only for them to throw it and pollute the Earth.

Luckily, all is not lost! There are several ways how to recycle plastic drinking straws. We argue that investment in new facilities is also key.

A bit about Waster

Before we continue our topic on how to recycle plastic drinking straws, let me share more information about Waster.

We here at Waster provide you with innovative solutions for your and your business’s waste management and recycling needs. Additionally, we provide flexible, 30-day contracts instead of the typical lock-in contracts, which proves to be better.

Click on the blue button to learn more.

READ: Economic Value Of Waste 📊

How to recycle plastic drinking straws: the proper way

Admittedly it is difficult to recycle plastic drinking straws. According to interviews, small things like plastic drinking straws are hard to recycle because they slip through the machinery and ultimately fail to be recycled properly. See our blog on Lego recycling here.

I know you might be thinking “Why not just ban plastic drinking straws?” It’s much more complicated than that. Here are some of the reasons why banning plastic drinking straws is difficult:

1. Plastic drinking straws are cheap. Unlike some alternative drinking straws such as paper, metal, and glass straws, plastic drinking straws are relatively cheaper to buy at the store. They are easier to produce, after all.
2. People prefer drinking beverages with a straw. Different reasons come to mind when thinking about why people prefer to drink with a straw. Personal hygiene is a primary example. People think drinking through a straw is a cleaner way to quench your thirst rather than directly drinking from the cup.
3. Some people are just straight-up lazy! This one is almost self-explanatory. What better way to drink than not to even holding your cup, right? Let the plastic drinking straw do it for you!

Can plastic straws be recycled in Australia? Better yet, can plastic straws be recycled worldwide? According to an article, recycling plastic drinking straws is possible.

Take a look at our blog on bottle-top recycling for a similar discussion such as this blog on plastic drinking straws.

A technique called Repackaging Method is a way on how to recycle plastic drinking straws. It involves bundling some straws up and putting them in type 5 plastic or polypropylene to make sure they don’t end up falling out of the machinery that recycles them.

By using this type of method, plastic drinking straws will surely be shredded and processed to ensure recycling.

The downside of this is some humans who sort out the garbage collected throw out the straws they find – prompting the plastic drinking straws cheap because they are not in demand to be recycled.

Still, a surefire way of reducing plastic drinking straws is avoiding them.

How to recycle plastic drinking straws: offer alternatives or remove them altogether

Removing plastic drinking straws surely does solve plenty of problems! What better way to make the ocean pollution-free than to remove the main causes of it, right?

First off, you can try drinking without a straw. You won’t have a problem disposing of plastic drinking straws if you don’t use one.

Making a change begins with yourself, after all. You can start by requesting you go straw-free at a restaurant. Although some restaurants are already making a conscious effort to remove plastic drinking straws at their place, there are still some of them that automatically serve them a straw along with the customer’s drinks.

Another way to help reduce the use of plastic drinking straws is by using alternative straws.

Concerned environmentalists have come up with straws that don’t have plastic in them. Straws made of materials such as paper, metal, and bamboo are making headlines as alternatives to plastic drinking straws.

Individuals who want to use a long-lasting straw over and over again without endangering the environment can opt to purchase a metal straw.

Metal straws are very convenient to have around. They are generally hassle-free to carry around and easy to clean as they already come with cleaning brushes after purchasing. They are also relatively cheap – sure, they might come off as more expensive than plastic drinking straws, but what do a few dollars cost in helping save the environment, right?

As for paper straws, they usually take a considerably lower amount of time to decompose than plastic drinking straws. It is perfect for restaurants wherein single-use straws are much more preferred.

To conclude, there are ways how to recycle plastic drinking straws. A little bit of research surely does enlighten people about something but even if you consider plastic drinking straws recyclable, a better way is to use an alternative drinking straw or better yet – remove the use of straws for the environment!

Let Waster help you dispose of straws

Turn your place into a garbage-free environment! Waster focuses on helping Australian businesses deliver low-cost and excellent customer service. You never have to worry about disposing of garbage such as plastic drinking straws!

Of course, you can also use a TerraCycle box to recycle your straws. You take a look at the details here.

Check out our offers and see for yourself how recycling plastic drinking straws can be handled by us. “How to recycle plastic drinking straws?” Waster will do it for you! Call 1300 WASTER (1300 927 837)