“It was never just about the straw ,” said Christine Figgener, 35, who was ca lling from Texas A&M University, where she is finishing a Ph.D. in marine biology. “The straw was supposed to be a symbol, a poster child. It’s a low-hanging fruit.”Ms. Figgener studies marine turtles, and in August 2015 she posted a video of one getting a plastic straw removed from its left nostril. A public crusade against plastic straws began. Bars, coffee shops, airlines and hotels across the country have responded, replacing plastic straws with paper, bamboo, hay, meat, pasta and candy varieties (remember drinking Coca-Cola out of a Twizzler as a kid?

Source: New York Times October 07, 2019 21:00 UTC