More Internet activism. This video comes with a warning about its disturbing footage:
And it is disturbing. 
Frankly, I never thought about straws before. I knew about the plastic 6-pack rings, because of Ed the Duck.
He became a cause celebre back in 1990 and I have avoided that six-pack packaging ever since, or at least cut the rings up in little pieces before recycling them. Still doesn’t mean some poor creature isn’t going to try to eat a piece.
But one does what one can. (Yeah. Pun.)
The argument for drinking straws is that the glass your drink is served in may not be completely clean. Unlikely in the United States where we have strict health codes and inspectors. We’re not a Third World country yet.You’re unlikely to get sick drinking from a restaurant glass, and if you’re that paranoid about germs, why are you eating in a restaurant anyway? What about the plates? The forks?
I seldom drink through the automatically provided straw, anyway. Of course I mostly drink wine and margaritas—a straw in a margarita is just silly because you can’t taste the salt and even thought those cute cans of Sofia come with a straw, sipping wine through a straw is a highly unsatisfactory experience.
Anyway, I eschew straws, so I was highly pleased when my server at Publik Kitchen asked me if I wanted a straw with my iced tea instead of automatically sticking one in my glass. 
I thanked her. The turtles thank her. Think about it. Eight million tons of plastic a year end up in our oceans, according to Plastic Oceans.
Just because we live in Utah doesn’t mean that it isn’t our problem.
