In recent years the use of single-use plastics has skyrocketed, and they are now used daily for a range of purposes-from food wrappers to carrier bags to tampon applicators. These single-use plastics then travel through our rubbish and waste systems and are found dumped into our oceans, affecting sealife and polluting many aspects of our environment. They are also beginning to reappear in our food chains, as the toxins in plastics are slowly making their way back into the foods that we eat, which is disruptive to human development. This idea is to lobby the SU bars to back the NUS campaign of The Last Straw and ban the use of single use plastics in their bars, namely plastic cups and straws. I realise people (me included!) prefer straws for drinks on nights out, and so I am pitching the switch to paper straws and cups, both of which are ethically mass produced, easily available and less environmentally damaging when recycled at the end of a night out. By making this change, not only are we reducing the amount of plastic in our oceans and our own systems, but we as students are affecting change for the future and improving ocean quality for years to come.

Below is a link for a section of Blue Planet II, in which Sir David Attenborough talks about the effects of plastics in our oceans. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a8HGJid-Jo