- By Huma Hashmi, Staff Writer - The Last Plastic Straw is a project of Plastic Pollution Coalition. By some estimates, Americans throw away 500 million plastic straws a day. In only the past twenty years, people have come to expect plastic straws in every drink, in an example of extreme waste being generated for minimal convenience. Straws and other plastics cause harm to marine life in many ways. Birds, fish and other sea life consume plastics accidentally or when they mist