You know what's a really small, easy thing every person can do to help service workers?
Taking their straws out of their disposable cups before they throw them away.
The straws, when inside the cups, have enough strength that they can poke holes right through garbage bags, tearing them open and making it impossible to empty the trash without sending garbage flying everywhere. Seriously, I work at a gas station and don't know how many times I've been outside changing the garbages by the pumps and it's taken me two or three times as long as it should bc the bags had ripped open and I had to retrieve trash.
It's even worse when they're shoved into garbages that are already pretty full. Tension+somewhat sharp object+the force I apply when pulling the bag out = guaranteed shredded bags.
But when straws aren't in the cups, they just... don't really do that. They usually crumple, rather than stab through the bag.
Like, I'm not even getting into the environmental ethics of disposable straws and cups. It's such a little thing to do, but if everyone did it, it would make my job so so so SOOOO much easier.
Just take the straw out before you throw the cup away.
