I live at the beach.

It seems to me there’s a lot of trash on it. The trash is many different things. Each causes its own problems. There’s Shovels, balls, dod poop bags, Pizza boxes, carryout bags, trash bags, napkins, paper plates, cups, lids, and yes, there’s lids with straws, and individual straws. But there’s a lot more of everthing else.

Fixing the trash problem by choosing one item to vilify each year is going be glacially slow.

Wouldn't it make more sense to address the trash problem?

It's gonna have to explain how my straw is going to magically appear on a beach.

Why would anyone worry about a singular straw? Isn’t this an issue of the average/group behavior - and outcomes resulting from it?

Not one straw, my point is that straws on beaches do not come from landfills. They come from illegal dumping operations and cruise ships and maybe tourists who litter at the beach. Most people do not need to change they way they dispose of straws. This is a problem caused by a minority and no matter how few straws the rest of us use it will not address the problem even a little bit.

This is wrong. Plastics can and do escape landfills. Also it doesn't seem to be the case that all, or even most, single-use plastics are properly disposed of and make it to landfills.

Yeah I have no idea why this is being downvoted.

Not to mention this is IF plastics make it to landfills in the first place.

Do straws on the beach come from normal straw disposal? I would assume not. And most people dispose of straws normally.

as I recall, normal disposal regularly involves shipping it out to landfills or other countries - essentially a large “not in my back yard” supply chain.

Once there, it worms itself back into the environment, part of which is the ocean.