How straws go from cups to a "very big" environmental problem

Do you feel slightly guilty when you add a straw to a cold drink?

Disposable plastic straws are a small thing that has raised much controversy, mainly because of its impact on the environment. It has prompted a growing number of large corporations to abandon something that is almost iconic in American culinary culture.

July 1 Seattle has become the largest city to ban plastic straws. New Jersey and California already have straw bans.

And last week, Starbucks announced that it would eliminate all plastic straws by 2020. Other companies, like the Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt hotel chains, to air carriers such as that American Airlines and Alaska Airlines also plan to phase out "I think the focus on straws has shifted because it's something we do not need, most from among us, in our daily lives, so it's easy to eliminate, "said Ayana Elizabeth Johnson at CNBC . The Money in an interview recently.

"Straws are one of the top five objects found in beach cleaning, so they are still a big problem," said Johnson, marine biologist and founder of Ocean Collectiv. Straw is "a very big part of the pollution, especially what ends up in the ocean," she said, adding that the proposed straw bans are "a great way to start a conversation about single-use plastics, usually because we use a million million plastic water bottles every minute. "