By Sophia Schlegelmilch | Observer Contributor
As communities across the U.S. propose measures to limit or ban plastic straws, Christine Nelson, President of the Green Society, discussed their environmental impact and offered some greener alternatives.
“We use 390 million straws in one day [in the United States],” said Nelson, “you just use it for a few minutes, and then it’s gone and we don’t think about it.”
According to Nelson, plastic straws are particularly detrimental to the environment because they are in category #5, polypropylene, on the plastics grading scale and most curbside pickup recycling programs won’t recycle them.