Add the New York Times to the long list of newsrooms that have uncritically repeated a statistic created by a nine-year-old child.
If you read the Washington Examiner’s commentary page, you’ve probably heard this story: Media and environmental activists claim Americans use roughly 500 million drinking straws per day. Per day. The problem here is the data upon which this figure is based is extremely tenuous (but that doesn’t slow activists and the press from repeating it anyway).
The 500 million number is attributed to the nonprofit recycler Eco-Cycle. But Eco-Cycle told Reason magazine in January that it didn’t collect that number from any of its own research.
Rather, the group said it has been relying on the work “of one Milo Cress … Cress — whose Be Straw Free Campaign is hosted on Eco-Cycle’s website — tells Reason that he arrived at the 500 million straws a day figure from phone surveys he conducted of straw manufacturers in 2011, when he was just 9 years old.”
Oh, boy.
First, it’s unlikely straw bans will have the intended, positive effect on the environment. Second, burdening consumers and business owners with legislation based on the unofficial work of a child seems like a bad idea all around.
Yet, despite the number’s dubious origins, it has become so widespread, so commonly accepted, that Seattle passed an ordinance recently banning plastic drinking straws, making it the first major U.S. city to do so. Similar legislation is being considered in New York City, Washington, D.C., Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco.
Starbucks even announced on July 9 that it would move to eliminate plastic straws at its shops by 2020.
“For our partners and customers, this is a significant milestone to achieve our global aspiration of sustainable coffee, served to our customers in more sustainable ways,” said Kevin Johnson, president and chief executive officer for Starbucks.
You’d think the nation’s biggest and most prominent newsrooms, cities and businesses would be at least curious to know the origins of this shocking and highly unlikely number (to hit that 500 million mark, every man, woman and child in the U.S. would have to average more than one drink with a straw per day). You’d think, for example, that the New York Times would be more careful than to report, “The United States goes through over 500 million plastic straws every day, according to Eco-Cycle, a United States-based nonprofit recycling organization.” Of the many newsrooms that have repeated Cress’ number, including NBC News, Reuters, Time magazine, the Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times, you’d think at least one of them would be curious enough as to question the methodology behind the 500 million number.
But expecting newsrooms to apply an ounce of skepticism to a supposedly environmentally-friendly statistic is apparently expecting too much. Who has time for questions when there’s some feel-good activism afoot?
