Plastic straws are a red herring.

Plastic straws themselves? Sure. Plastic waste in general? Definitely not. It negatively affects a huge variety of wildlife populations, some of which are already facing an onslaught from various other human activities. There's only so many things these populations can take before they collapse completely and every additional issue can push them closer towards extinction.

It may very well be negatively impacting us too. Recent studies have found microplastics inside the guts of human test subjects, and plastics in general are known to be biologically harmful - for example, breaking down endocrine disruptors (which do things like mimic hormones once inside our bodies). We still Don't know what the effects of things like this will be.

Is plastic waste a problem on the scale of climate change? No. But it's definitely something we should put some effort into solving.

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the left blocks any solutions like hydro, nuclear or natural gas.

I definitely think this is part of the problem. If we'd gone all in on things like hydro and nuclear in the 60s and 70s, I'm sure we'd be way closer to our emissions targets at this point in time. Damn hippies!

Not sure what the benefits of natural gas are in this scenario though?