Plastic straws are one of the biggest causes of pollution that are used every day. Winthrop students are becoming more aware of this issue with the help of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC). On Nov. 5, SEAC held a screening of the short-documentary “Straws” along with a Skype session Q&A with the director, Linda Booker.
“One of the biggest issues in conservation right now is single-use plastic because they are not very easily disposed of and even the biodegradable single-use plastics aren’t good because they just end up in landfills…which is an anaerobic environment, which means no oxygen is getting there and they can’t actually biodegrade. This was just to bring awareness to this issue of these single-use plastics.” Tira Beckham, President of SEAC said about the screening of “Straws”.
The film is 30 minutes long and was originally released in 2017. Since its initial release, the film has been used for educational purposes at schools throughout the country. The film follows a group of scientists in Costa Rica whose video of a straw being stuck in a turtle’s nose went viral in 2015. It then showcases middle schooler Max Machum who was inspired by the video to start the #NoStrawChallange. With this challenge, Max convinced many restaurants and businesses on the island to commit to going strawless or switch to paper straws.
Linda Booker, the director of “Straws” has always been passionate about the environment, but she was inspired to create the film when she saw how much of a need there was for access to education about straws. The film has created a wave of passion and uprising, causing change throughout the nation.
“What’s been so inspiring for me has been meeting so many young people in colleges and high schools, and they’re the ones that are really wanting to be a part of this movement to make a change and be a voice that can’t be ignored,” Booker said.
Many of Winthrop’s students are counted in that group of young people and already have created a change across campus. Through actions from SEAC and the sustainability department on campus, Sodexo has chosen to begin eliminating single-use plastic on campus.
“Thomson has gotten rid of their plastic straws, and a lot of people have been upset about that, but the reason they are doing that is to promote conservation in our everyday world,” Beckham said.
Thomson has recently been providing paper straws, a much more environmentally friendly option to the plastic straws previously provided. These small steps toward a more environmentally conscious campus and community is what SEAC and Booker were hoping to encourage with the film “Straws.”
“If you use one straw a day, you go through about 35,000 straws between the ages of 5 and 65. You can say, ‘Oh, my actions aren’t going to make a difference,’ but we have to talk about what if your actions inspire a whole community. For every person whose mindset you change, we are able to reduce waste by that much.” Booker said to the audience.
