I wrote most of this post in mid-June but kept putting off sharing it because I kept hoping (out of both desperation and optimism) that the straw debate would end. But it hasn’t. So two months later… here we are.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on 10 June that the government of Canada will be banning the use of single-use plastics– including plastic straws– as early as 2021.
The Hon. Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change said: “[O]ur government intends to ban harmful single-use plastic products where science warrants it[…]” (emphasis mine).
Here’s the thing: Science has proven multiple times that people with disabilities require single-use plastic straws to drink, that any other kind of straw will not suffice (see infographics), and can even cause fatal injury, and that a “single use straw upon request” system isn’t good enough. (Countless disabled people have reported being denied plastic straws because they “didn’t look like they needed one” or “weren’t disabled enough”).
This is why we can’t “just use a metal straw”. (Other than the fact that someone with much stronger joints than mine was just impaled by one).
s.e. smith wrote last year, “straw bans are just part and parcel of the environmental movement’s long legacy of devaluing disabled lives — despite the fact that we are environmentalists too and often have more directly at stake”.
Yet the fight continues.
We’ve seen how plastic straw bans didn’t work in numerous cities in the US and the UK. Why is Canada pushing for this now, too?
Instead of a country-wide ban that will hit disabled people the hardest, why not offer incentives for people who can and do use alternatives to single-use plastics? It works at Whole Foods with reusable bags (and plastic bags are not, y’know, saving people’s lives because water is necessary for survival).
And more importantly, let’s focus on the corporations who are profiting off of polluting our oceans and air and force them to take responsibility for their actions: Tax these companies, put a quotas in place, and get them to plant trees and donate money to local environmentalist organizations to offset the damage they cause.
Pollution and climate change hurt everyone, but corporations have an infinitely larger impact than individuals: It’s time for these wealthy companies to be held responsible, and for governments and society and large to stop ganging up on disabled people and telling us to just stop using plastic straws, as if it’s that simple.
