Today was the third day of my eco-friendly week; it was almost too easy. By scribbling my daily straw habits down, I noticed a pattern; I don’t use many straws. I just don’t!

The only time I utilize the thin plastic cylinders is when I’m at a restaurant or pulling through my favorite drive-thru. When I work at my part-time job, I just bring a reusable water bottle with me. In fact, I bring that almost everywhere I go.

The only time I order a drink while at a fast-food joint, is when I’m craving McDonald’s sweet tea (it’s godly). Nevertheless, it’s a rarity I use straws. This challenge has made me strategize my drinking habits and ultimately save a few bucks. Since starting this eco-friendly, anti-straw week, I’ve consciously avoided drive-thrus in efforts to stay true to my self-guided pact.

I decided that on my final day (the 5th entry) of this challenge, I will go to a fast food restaurant and order a drink, but ask them to fill my reusable bottle and see how that goes.

There’s a plethora of other plastic-made utensils used and discarded like last week’s leftovers; disposable silverware seem to be my achilles’ heel. It’s much harder for me to deny a plastic fork while eating some sort of semi-healthy salad on the go, than to just sip water without a straw.

Going forward, I believe my next eco-friendly challenge would be to give up all disposable plastic utensils, not just straws.

However tedious living without straws may be for people, we just have to keep in mind the turtles. The odds of accidentally hurting an innocent turtle decrease dramatically with every denied straw.

via GIPHY