The Summer of Plastic-Straw Bans: How We Got There

Once ubiquitous, plastic straws have become utensil non grata, with cities banning them and companies phasing them out

Corinne Ramey and

Bob Tita

Updated Aug. 7, 2018 4:36 p.m. ET

When reality-TV star Kim Kardashian West told her 115 million Instagram followers that her household had stopped using plastic straws, the head of an environmental nonprofit responded in disbelief.

“I thought, ‘Did we culture-hack this?’ ” said Dune Ives, executive director of Lonely Whale, whose #StopSucking social-media campaign advocates banning single-use plastic straws. “Did we change the conversation around straws?”

This...