By Emily Cohn (Age 10)
Are paper straws better for our environment than plastic straws? What do paper straws do in the world?
Are paper straws better for our environment than plastic straws? That is the question I ask myself every day. What do paper straws do in the world? Well, they just replace plastic straws. I strongly feel that plastic straws are better for the environment. Now you might be thinking that paper straws are better for the earth but are they really?
One reason why paper straws are bad for the Earth is that people are not recycling as much as they should. You might be wondering, who invented paper straws? The answer is, Marvin Stone. There were so many plastic straws in the ocean that he decided to make an alternative to plastic straws. He invented paper straws. People were throwing their plastic straws into the ocean which was causing water pollution. Plastic straws are supposed to be recycled, but people were not recycling their things. I think paper straws are another problem in the world, that is why I like plastic straws.
Another reason why paper straws are bad for the Earth is that people are cutting down so many trees just to make paper straws. They cut over 500 million trees every day, and over 5 billion trees each year just to make paper straws. There are only 8,000 pieces of paper in each tree. They are cutting down so many trees and in California, we are having many forest fires. These fires are eating up our oxygen because when trees are destroyed, we have less and less oxygen for us to breathe.
Now I can agree that paper straws were a good idea. I mean they are good because they do not hurt animals, and they prevent so much plastic trash pollution in the ocean. This plastic pollution would not happen though if we recycled our things. We would not be having this problem. There is one more thing about paper straws. You are putting paper in a wet drink, and when the paper is in water, it gets wet and makes little chunks of paper get in the water. Without you realizing it, it is like taking a bite of paper.
As I said before, paper straws are bad for the Earth. It is another problem in this world. Again, people are not recycling their things, they are cutting down too many trees, and people are drinking water with them. I feel that you should stop using paper straws. I hope you feel the same too.