The plastic straw problem: effects on our beaches and oceans

Hello, my name is ____. Today my topic for the presentation is The plastic straw problem: effects on our beaches and oceans. I will talk about the application of different logistics’ concept on this issue and highlight the challenges that are caused by the plastic straw on the marine life. Currently, awareness has been raised throughout the world about the dangerous hazards of plastic straws and majority of the individuals are now against the use of plastic straw. In the past year, videos were made to show the brutality that the marine life has to face due to plastic waste; quite a few sea animals have been stuck with plastic nets.  A video showed a turtle that was in excruciating pain due to a plastic straw that was stuck in his nose and mariners were trying to get it out but after so many tries, they were successful in getting that piece of straw out (Robinson & Figgener, 2015). Plastic has been used in almost all the products now as the products made through plastic are easy to manufacture and doesn’t go bad. Moreover, use of plastic straws around the world was started in the middle of the 20th century and since then plastic straw manufacturing companies like Friedman’s Flex Straw Company has been making profits (Gibbens, 2019). The boom of Plastic straw company was due to easy manufacturing and packaging as well as its quality of not going bad so it can be stored for a longer period of time (Gibbens, 2019). The plastic straw is an environmental issue as the dumping of these in oceans badly impacts the water causing water pollution. According to the World Bank, by the year 2050 the quantity of plastic in the ocean will be much greater than the total sea animals (as cited in Jambeck, Geyer, Wilcox, Siegler, Perryman, Andradry…. & Law, 2015).  

Then add a question: “the question arises, will anyone address this issue of plastic straw being a hazard to the marine life?” 

Then answer: one such model has been given by Lim & Arumugam (2019), they advised an Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility Management model. The model would be implemented on three stages that is brand name, target audience and product. Through this model the straw making companies will approach big companies that will start rising awareness on the ban of plastic straws and use straws made of recyclable products. The target audience of the recyclable straw can be McDonald’s that have more than 30,000 outlets all around the world.  Majority of the people are familiar with McDonalds and younger generation is most likely to be the regular customers and they will get awareness on the use of recyclable straws. Then in the last stage the biodegradable straw used by the franchise will be key for their success in the market and this will be good for the image of the Brand.  

When talking in terms of logistical concepts, concept of Relationship impact of Logistics mentioned in Lecture 1 where product decisions is described. This concept is similar to the use of new product like that of a biodegradable straw used by McDonalds will improve their Brand image and they will be seen as a key stakeholder in raising awareness. This is also a cost trade offs approach as the cost of biodegradable product would be high but the increase in the purchase of their products will cover the cost of biodegradable straw.  

References: 

Gibbens, S. 2019. A brief History of How Plastic Straws took over the World, National Geographic, Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/news-plastic-drinking-straw-history-ban/ 

Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., … & Law, K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771. 

Lim, G. N., & Arumugam, P. V. (2019, June). Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility Management and Strategy to Reshaping Consumer Behaviour. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 268, No. 1, p. 012122). IOP Publishing. 

Robinson, N. J., & Figgener, C. (2015). Plastic straw found inside the nostril of an olive ridley sea turtle. Marine Turtle Newsletter, 147, 5-6.