Seattle becomes the first big city in the United States to ban straws – The Denver Post

In a sip, Seattle became Sunday the first major US city to ban straws, an environmentally friendly gesture that will spark a national conversation about the small daily changes people can make to protect the planet. [19659002] A decade ago, the city passed a prescription that all disposable foods be compostable or recyclable, according to the Seattle Times. But straws and other cutlery were exempt from this law because there were not many good alternatives.

So the straws stayed, as well as the environmental problems that they cause.

Most plastic straws are not heavy enough recycling sorters, according to the Strawless Ocean campaign, and can ruin another good recycling load. Or they end up being blown out of trash cans and car windows and end up in the oceans, where they can hurt wildlife.

Strawless Ocean estimates that 71 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of turtles have some sort of plastic in their stomachs, which can halve their mortality rate.

Customers in grocery stores, restaurants, food trucks and even institutional cafeterias must now find another way to get liquid into their mouths. Compostable paper and plastic straws are allowed under the ban. People who have a medical need to use a straw are exempt.

Failure to comply may result in a $ 250 fine, although city officials told the Times that the first phase of the law is more focused on raising awareness than giving tickets to rogue clients.

In September, 150 companies participated in Strawless in Seattle, an attempt to reduce the use of plastic straws. According to Strawless Ocean, 2.3 million plastic straws were removed from the city in just that month.

"When you get your frozen latte, you'll have a straw. When you go get your mojito, you're probably going to have a straw, "said Dune Ives, executive director of the Lonely Whale Foundation, who ran the campaign, at the Times." Once we start watching our daily lives, he is really easy to see how fast "plastic adds up.

A goodwill ambassador Adrian Grenier lent his celebrity to the #StopSucking campaign

But consumers also lobbied on companies to eliminate plastic straws, for example, a petition on Change.org requiring McDonald's to pass eyelids without seeds.

"Imagine a world where we could stop consume 500 million straws a day, nothing in America! "Imagine a world less dependent on plastic. That's the change we can start today! "

And even Seattle-based Starbucks makes an effort to change its heavy economic model

The company is developing lids without straw.