The European Union voted to ban single-use plastic items throughout the EU by 2021 in their effort to cut down on ocean plastic. This ban includes plastic straws, which take up 4% of plastic pollution around the world. However, this does not mean that people have to go around drinking without any sipping tool. People around the world are using alternatives to plastic such as glass, bamboo, and recently in Italy, pasta straws.
Using pasta straws to help reduce plastic waste
GranFabio, a Redditor, recently shared a picture revealing how some bars in Italy have started serving their drinks with environmentally friendly pasta straws. He wrote in his post that the bars in Italy are starting to use pasta as straws to reduce plastic straw use. His post and his image went viral, and a lot of people loved the idea as the pasta straws are also edible.
Italy is not the only country do adopt the pasta straw, a London-based company called Stroodles have edible, biodegradable pasta straws made from water and wheat, so they are 100% vegan as well. If you wish to cut down on single-use plastics, you can purchase packs of pasta straws on Stroodles online.
Plastic waste problem in Italy
One of Italy's biggest challenges is solving the huge amount of plastic littering in their country's shores, with data published by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research revealing that almost 500,000 tonnes of plastic waste end up in the Mediterranean every year. The waste is comprised of plastic bottles, plastic straws, shopping bags, and plastic product packaging.
This data was collated with the help of volunteers and fishermen who reported that their nets collect more waste than fish. The institute also said that Italian beaches have between 500 to 1,000 items of garbage every 100 meters.
Cecilia Silvestri, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, said that the situation in the Mediterranean is serious. She also said that the problem is that the Mediterranean is a closed basin, and it is compromised because of garbage that gets thrown in the sea in north African countries that do not yet have a sufficient waste management system. The garbage circulates, and it ends up in Italy's coastline.
Plastic is also polluting Italy's lakes. Tourists stated that Lake Como is the most polluted in Europe with micro-plastic. Plastic is a real problem, and it needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Another major issue in Italy is pollution, especially in the northern cities. Although Italy's greenhouse gas emissions have been decreasing over the past few years, Italy was criticized this year by the European Climate Foundation for failing to give an adequate plan to reduce emissions and dependence on fossil fuels further. Emissions remain an issue, and another issue is extinctions in Italy as there are a lot of species that are close to dying off.
Impact of plastic in Italy's marine life
The impact of plastic waste on the coastal environments and marine life in Italy is a massive concern in Italy, as new data show the country's 7,600 kilometers of coastline is more polluted than ever.
A report in 2019 by The Beach Litter, an environmental group, revealed that there is an average of ten pieces of garbage per square meter in Italy's beaches.
The group's analysis of 93 Italian beaches showed that 81% of the garbage found there is plastic. And a study by the University of Pisa in 2018 found worrying quantities of small plastic particles embedded in Italy's sandy beaches.
