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On Straws, Environmentalism, and Ableism
Entry posted by abhorsen.
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If you've seen something along these lines on my facebook, sorry - I was thinking about it, and I was like, you know what this would make a blog post.
So here we are.
There's been a lot of attention paid to the impact plastic straws have on the environment lately, and I know a lot of people who have become pretty active in pushing back against how the waste they generate. That's not a bad thing in and of itself; many people don't use straws, and throwing out unused or unnecessary straws is definitely not good for the environment and should be avoided when possible.
However.
It is not okay to go around telling restaurants that they should no longer carry straws, or shaming people for using straws, or dismissing the fact that some people need straws to drink - and there's a growing trend toward taking it to that extreme.
My mom needed a straw to drink before the ALS progressed to her not being able to drink on her own, and there were at least a couple events we went to where there weren't straws and so she literally couldn't drink. It was upsetting, and trying to get her water in other ways was nowhere near as safe as her being able to control what she was drinking through a straw. (It's really, really hard to tip just the right amount of water into someone's mouth at just the right pace, especially when their disability impacts things like breathing. When the straw stopped being an option because she didn't have the breath to suck the liquid up and we had to hold up the cup for her, there were multiple times when she inhaled the water - including one incident that resulted in an exhausting trip to the hospital.)
My mom is not the only person in that situation. There are a lot of people who literally cannot drink or struggle to drink without straws because of disabilities or other health issues. Shaming them for needing straws is shaming them for being disabled.
A lot of people don't realize this. I get that - it's not something I would have been so aware of if I hadn't seen it with my mom. But once you're aware of the issue, please, please call out the ableism when you see it. Not being to access water (or other liquids) - especially when it happens all the time because no one carries straws anymore - is really, really dangerous, and it's not an exaggeration to say that it can lead to serious health complications and even death.
Reusable straws are an option - but they're not always a good option, either for individuals to carry with them or for restaurants/other events to use them like they use utensils.
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Ineffective. Metal, wood, and glass can be too hard (or cold) to be viable solutions for some people, and a lot of the reusable straws on the market - especially the ones that are most durable, which are also probably the most desirable for both individuals and companies - are metal/wood/glass.
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Price point. Reusable straws are often much, much more expensive.
That's a problem for individuals because people with disabilities are disproportionately poor, because disabilities are expensive. Healthcare is often incredibly expensive, accessibility isn't a priority, and just getting around can be prohibitively exhausting and also not at all cost effective.
That's also a problem for places that serve food. Some restaurants probably could afford to provide them, but many - especially places that are less formal or primarily to-go (i.e., cheaper) - would not. If we're talking about a one-time event, that's even more true, because no one is going to spend $30 on reusable straws for one event.
- Sanitation. Reusable straws aren't that hard to clean if you have the physical ability to do so, but they're still harder to clean that silverware. That's an additional barrier for people who don't have the physical ability to do so for their own personal straws, and it also makes using someone else's reusable straw problematic; there's no guarantee that it's been cleaned properly, which is particularly a concern if you have a vulnerable immune system - which many disabled people who need straws do.
Beyond that... straws don't exist in a vacuum. Disabled people are often less able to minimize waste than abled people, and the answer can't be to tell disabled people to just be more like abled people - they can't be. That's the point. The onus for saving the planet has to rest on the people who can do it, not thrown at the feet of people who can't - and if people can't accept disabled people sometimes needing disposable straws, it's not going to stop there.
Absolutely ask people if they need straws. Advertise reusable straws. But people need to use a little empathy, too, because they can reduce waste without shaming people for needing a little more than they do.
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