By Kameron McGill

Over winter break I was fortunate enough to visit a few good restaurants and indulge in some delicious food. One of the restaurants was called Publik House, located in Springvale, ME. During my meal something caught my eye, it was the straw in my drink.

Many of you are probably wondering why something as seemingly insignificant as a straw captured my attention. This straw was different than all the other straws I have used in the past, as this one was made out of paper. This was the first time I have been given a paper straw locally here in Maine. I was very impressed by this change.

Plastic continues to be a controversial issue across the globe, as we are improperly disposing of plastic waste products, which are not biodegradable, are damaging our environment, killing wildlife, polluting our shores and degrading the ecosystems upon which we rely.

In the United States we use enough straws to fill the Yankee stadium twice a year. To bring this into perspective, more than half a million straws are used world-wide daily. This is a major issue and I believe it is important that the students here at SMCC are aware of the massive pollution that not only plastic straws are having on our planet, but plastic in general.

Here, in one of the cleanest and most environmentally conscious states in the country, we should be taking a sustainable step forward as a number of other states in the U.S. have already done and ban both plastic straws and plastic bags in order to preserve Maine’s greatest resource: it’s environment. As a community we must be aware of the price that will be paid by all of us if the usage of plastic is not discontinued.

“It’s About Time” is a new feature for the Beacon, one that any of the staff writers or one of our other contributors might choose to pick up and write; anything that fits under the category of…It’s about time! If you have a bone to pick or a topic that’s been gnawing on you for long enough, maybe it’s about time you put those ideas out there.