Handful of companies? You mean like 600,000+ companies? Because that is the number of restaurants in the United States and most of them provide straws with the beverages they serve.

I am 100% for personal responsibility, but even if people are being responsible that is a lot of fucking straws.

Also, it isn't like people are driving to the beach and throwing the straws into the ocean. Trash ends up on barges to be transported to places it can be disposed of, trash falls of barges and ends up in rivers and oceans. Even if people are responsibly throwing their straws and other trash into bins, a significant portion of that trash still ends up in our water ways.