I personally avoid waste as much as possible, whether it be one use plastic or other things like food. Just a habit ingrained from me since young that makes me emotionally react to wastage and prevent it. If I honestly think about it though, I don't think my actions make much difference, it's literally just to satisfy my own need to reduce waste. When I finish every bit of food to ensure there is no leftovers, there are tons of food left untouched everyday from events being thrown away.
What's the solution though? It seems that real change needs to be driven not by individual consumers. Businesses then? Well cleantech is great and getting more support for cleantech is great. Some businesses also do what they can to reduce consumption. That said, there's also a limit to how far they can go before they become uncompetitive.
Perhaps consumers choosing to support businesses with cleaner manufacturing and supply chain go a longer way than cutting straw usage. Consumers choosing to use products that reduce carbon footprint. Then again, such things are often opaque, how do you really know? Just like how a tote bag has a 150x higher carbon footprint than a plastic bag. I'm sure many people don't use one tote bag 150 times. You wouldn't have known that by going 'plastic free' you actually contributed to a higher carbon footprint. Similarly, did you know that the rising demand for soybeans (which is touted as a plant based meat replacement) is a key factor that led to the razing of the amazon rainforest?
Perhaps its something that governments have to push for. Though it will certainly hurt the economy. And I guess the government's decisions are affected by the will of the people, so the voice for legislation must be strong and people willing to accept what needs to be done.
So maybe cutting down on plastic straws isn't useless. But instead of thinking of it as something that actually reduces carbon footprint directly, its value is actually in how it indirectly acts as a signalling effect that consumers do care. And for consumers themselves to take the first step in becoming more educated on what are the real things that need to change for impact to be made.
But big changes are painful, and honestly I'm not optimistic about the rate of change. We can slow things down, but going carbon neutral is quite frankly an enormous task.
Personally, I'm banking on new disruptive cleantech. Instead of banking on humanity to slowdown and reverse what we have been doing, I'm much more optimistic that we will continue to advance, and to go in a direction that allows us to develop new technologies to solve existing problems. Whether its nuclear fusion plants or artificial plants, we will get there.
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As an aside, kinda amused to see one of my favourite comedy YouTube channels put out a serious video sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation lel.
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