The Myth of Individual Action and Ethical Consumption as a means of solving the Climate Crisis
On the 22nd October 2018, the government launched its plastic straw ban. The decision was made as a reaction to fears of the threat to marine life posed by the 150 million tonnes of plastic sitting in oceans all over the globe. It is estimated that, as a nation, England uses 4.7 billion plastic straws a year.[1] One finds, however, that while billions of plastic straws end up in our seas, this only amounts to about 0.022% (to 2s.f.) of the mass of plastic waste that hits our oceans annually.[2] So, in reality, the straw ban is an example of…