This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

Over the summer a new movement started to gain momentum.

The movement to ban plastic drinking straws.

It's now legal for food service businesses in Seattle

to provide plastic straws and utensils.

Santa Cruz is among 28 others around the country

that have banned or limited plastic straws or are considering it.

California and Hawaii are even exploring statewide policies.

Environmentalists say 500 million plastic straws end up in the world's oceans every year harming wildlife.

The argument against straws is pretty simple.

We consume tons of plastic.

Not much of it gets recycled.

Most of it ends up in landfills and oceans.

So why not try to reduce a little of that waste?

But like most issues these days,

there's been a lot of disagreement about it. There's been backlash from a few directions, including conservatives.

The left's war against, wait for it,

straws.

It's all a bunch of moral preening, right?

It's this idea that we are holier than thou.

But people with disabilities also spoke up because some of those folks actually need straws

in order to drink.

...