Straws and other single-use plastics are littering our planet and even taking the lives of thousands of animals living in the ocean.

Not less than a month ago, a whale was found dead on a beach in the Philippines with over 88 lbs of plastic bags and other disposable plastic products in its stomach, according to New York Times reporter Daniel Victor.

Darrell Blatchley who witnessed the whale’s necropsy even noted that “The plastic in some areas was so compact it was almost becoming calcified, almost like a solid brick” (NYT, Victor). Since there is no way to digest all that plastic, it accumulated and became compacted, weighing down the poor animal.  

Unfortunately, this whale isn’t alone.   (See coverage of a whale killed by plastic in November of last year  National Geographic Video)

So far, more than 700 different species have been reported to have either eaten or been entangled in plastic. Out of all the different types of plastic refuse, single-use plastics cause by far the most harm. Their light weight causes them to float on the surface of waters where they can be easily mistaken for food, and with more than 8 million tons of plastic polluting the oceans each year, the ocean is practically a minefield for all those animals.

Turtles, fish, birds, and all the animals in the ocean are constantly mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish, getting straws stuck up their noses, and getting tangled in plastic packaging.

But you can help! You could pick up plastic littering your local roads or do something as simple as recycling your trash.

You could use reusable bags and containers, instead of plastic ones.

You could use a metal straw (For sale by Environmental Club! See Ms. Christie for details!) instead of contributing to the 8.3 billion plastic ones that pollute the world’s beaches.

Or instead of leaving your food wrappers on the ground, you could walk the extra ten steps to throw it away properly.

You’d be doing your world, and all the animals living in it, a huge favor. You’d be preventing excruciating pain and deaths. It’s just these little things that we all should be doing that would make our world so much less polluted.

So maybe the next time you’re at the grocery store, you’ll think of the poor whales starving because they’re eating plastic bags, and ask for a paper one instead.