Will the Guilty Step Forward

I read “The Humble Plastic Straw” at the Indy website. While the content was interesting, to me, it was far from complete and missed the mark entirely. The writer’s statistics and declaration of environmental and animal harm may all be quite correct. What I do note is the writer’s omission of how the harmful material (plastics) is getting into the ocean and who are the culprits?

I live in a beach community — a typical California coastal city — and see minimal amounts of trash of all types on the beach, though any of it might wash into the ocean.

Beach trash doesn’t seem to be the cause, so what is? How is all this plastic trash entering the ocean?

Banning plastic bags or straws and so on does not seem to me to be a solution to the problem. It lies with discovering and stopping the “how and who.” Who are the polluters? This is not a California or U.S. problem. Rather, it is a worldwide problem. I wonder to what extent the U.S. contributes to this situation compared to other countries?

I’m all for protecting our ecosystem, but I do believe it is shortsighted to think banning straws will save the fish.