Thanks to a group of teenage activists called the Coral Keepers, we celebrate the effort at least once a year. Though, I know that many people celebrate it every day!

Many inventive people have created options for us to consider using instead of plastic straws. The materials include #metal, #silicone, #glass, and #bamboo, with metal being the most popular option. You can purchase them at many places, both in store and online.

While some people need to utilize a straw for medical reasons, most people use straws out of a sense of convenience. The truth is nothing is more convenient than bringing the cup directly to your mouth and tipping it back. The other truth is that drinking with straws contributes to lip wrinkles (much like smoking lines), bloating, cavities, and teeth staining.

Regardless of the individualized cons of using straws, they’re downright bad for the environment. Plastic straws take about 200 years to decompose. That means that every straw ever created is still here: in our oceans, landfills, or littered on the side of our roads. When straws make it to the ocean, marine life thinks it’s food. They often choke on these tiny pieces of plastic, or they get stuck in their airways.