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The Final Straw
The UK government has formally announced its plan to ban the distribution of plastic straws, drinks stirrers, and cotton buds, despite vocal objections from disability rights campaigners around the world. A protracted effort by environmental activists is to thank for the consultation, scheduled to take place over the next year, but while cotton buds and drinks stirrers are just the kind of frivolous waste our planet could do without, the same can’t be said for single-use plastic straws.
Quite simply, plastic straws are an accessibility tool. They were invented in the form we all know them as today in the 1930s, by an American called Joseph B. Friedman. Originally marketed as a Flex-Straw, Friedman’s design was quickly taken up by hospitals around the world, as medical professionals realised they were an ideal way to help disabled and ill people to drink safely and independently.
Before the Flex-Straw, most hospitals used glass tubes to help their patients stay hydrated, but these were unsafe in hot temperatures, dangerous for people with movement disorders, and highly unsanitary because of their need to be sterilised repeatedly. The Flex-Straw did away with all of these risks, being easily positioned to accommodate patients’ needs, non-perishable in hot liquids, and helping to limit the spread of communicable diseases.
Today, single-use plastic straws are also vital for many disabled people to safely drink at home and in public — and the alternatives don’t work. Paper straws disintegrate easily, metal, bamboo, and glass straws are choking hazards and pose a severe risk of injury for anyone with tremors or muscle spasms, and silicone straws are potent allergens for people with compromised immune systems, as well as requiring frequent sterilisation to be used safely.
Without single-use plastic straws, disabled people will be denied equal access to public spaces, and the proposed ban is a prime example of policy-makers ignoring us in their legislation. Able-bodied campaigners see the ban as ridding the world of unnecessary waste, but that is only because it will have little effect on their ability to move through society freely and independently. By…
