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plastic straws have been banned for a different reason than fighting climate change: they were the vast majority of trash showing up on shorelines.

I am with you with wanting carbon taxes, but it's not like there's a single issue that can ever be tackled at a time.

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Plastic straws are definitely a common form of beach trash, but they were never the "vast majority" of it. Not by item count, and certainly not by mass. They do rank in the top 10, but not at the top.

Ocean Conservancy has annual reports that include statistics from trash cleanup projects. The 2026 report[1] has a "global top items collected" list that covers 1986 to 2026; straws (& stirrers) are 5th at about 16 million items collected. Drinks bottles are number 3 at nearly 27 million. Cigarette butts are top (65 million)

Looking back at the report from the year 2000[2] as a comparison (this one lists numbers just for the year 2000 cleanup projects), straws are number 10 out of 12, cigarettes are still top, various other plastic items (not all of which are classified) are above straws.

[1] https://oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026... [2] https://oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2000...

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