McDonald's And Starbucks Announced Stop Using Plastic Straws

The recycling of waste plastics has always been a global concern.

In recent years, news about marine life dying from ingesting plastic trash has been common. A sperm whale swallowed 29 kilograms of plastic trash, got a stomach infection and ended up stranded on a beach in southern Spain.

A report by the World Economic Forum predicts that by 2050, the weight of plastic in the ocean will exceed that of fish.

As the call to eliminate plastic waste grows louder, big plastic consumers such as McDonald's and Starbucks are bearing the brunt. Therefore, they must step up to the plate and take social responsibility.

In May, McDonald's voted at its annual investor meeting on whether to phase out plastic straws from McDonald's meals. Last month, McDonald's announced that its U.K. and Ireland locations will replace all plastic straws with paper straws starting in September.

Following McDonald's, Starbucks also announced that it will stop using single-use plastic straws in 28,000 stores worldwide by 2020 and replace them with "lids" that don't require straws and straws made from environmentally friendly materials.

Starbucks consumes 1 billion plastic straws each year. The global marine pollution caused by plastic straws poses a threat to many marine organisms. In fact, many countries have begun to ban plastic cutlery.

There is no doubt that the involvement of large companies will help improve the plastic waste problem, but for now this is still a drop in the bucket, because the products here are only a small part of the 335 million tons of plastic products worldwide each year, of which 8 million tons of plastic waste will go to the sea.

Virtually any waste plastic, regardless of size, should be properly recycled. Many plastic straws are made of recyclable polypropylene and can be recycled so they don't end up in the ocean and cause marine plastic pollution. For waste plastic recycling, plastic recycling machines are one of the best options to help make it easy to recycle and create valuable plastic.