I know there’s already a lot of discussion on why plastic bans are incredibly ablist but I do want to take a moment and talk about the effect on diabetic- and more specifically insulin dependant- people.
It takes a ridiculous amount of single use plastic to treat this disability. For those of use with pumps, as far as I’m aware every pump takes some of plastic reservoir needed to hold the insulin, most pumps I know of require plastic tubing to transfer the insulin from pump to the body. It’s quite simply the best material for that purpose, but we also can’t just reuse those things. Insulin degrades the quality of plastic meaning the insulin itself slowly becomes diluted and less effective in tubing and reservoirs that’re overused, not to mention the plastic insertion parts that the body begins to reject and push out after a few days, those parts are also slowly degrading and you can’t reinsert them into the body. Not even to mention the fact that most of these things are placed in plastic containers for safety.
So then what about going off a pump? Well not to say anything bad about people without pumps- you’re incredibly powerful and I have a ton of respect for you and how much extra effort you put in- but pumps tend to be healthier and more natural, it can be paired with a cgm to monitor sugar levels constantly, they more closely mimic how an actual pancreas functions, and allow a lot more freedom in how we go about a lot of our lives, a failure is more casthorpic sure but a pump makes a huge difference to a ton of people including myself. But also, non pump users still have to consume a ton of plastic in order to manage their l diabetes, syringes are ussually plastic, those who use pens have needles with plastic casing, and both pump and non pump user will probably need plastic containers for test strips, plastic lancets for finger pricks, and plastic sharps containers so no one is hurt from the used material.
While there are ways to reduce the amount of plastic used in diabetic treatment, both for the health of diabetics, and for their safety and the safety of those disposing of the materials treatment leaves behind, using plastic in treating diabetes is incredibly important.
It doesn’t just stop at banning plastic straws and bags, all plastic bans hurts disabled people in so many ways that abled people can probably never fully understand.