Seattle becomes the first major city in the United States to ban straws

In a sip, Seattle Sunday became the first major US city to ban straws, an environmental initiative that, according to leaders, will spark a national conversation about the small daily changes people can make to protect the planet.

Ten years ago, the city passed an order requiring all single-use foods to 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 kind of plastic. stomachs, which can halve their mortality rate.

Now, grocery shoppers, restaurants, food trucks, and even institutional cafeterias have to find another way to put liquid in 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 outreach. give tickets to rogue customers.

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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'll probably have a straw," said Dune Ives, executive director of the Lonely Whale Foundation, who led the campaign, to the Times. "Once we begin to observe our daily lives, it's really easy to see how fast" plastic adds up.

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But consumers also lobbied companies to get rid of plastic straws. There is, for example, a petition on Change.org requiring McDonald's to pass eyelids without glitches.

"Imagine a world where we could stop consuming 500 million straws a day, nothing in America! "Imagine a less plastic-dependent world – it's the change we can begin today!"

And even Seattle-based Starbucks makes an effort to change its business model. .

The company develops lids without straw

(iStock)

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