The Lonely whale foundation strives for the world to join their movement for a strawless ocean. As mentioned in my previous post, plastic straws are a serious issue for our oceans. In America alone, 500 million are used every day, in turn polluting the waters and harming sea-life (Lonely whale 2017).
To attempt to put an end to single use plastic such as straws, they created a social media challenge called #STOPSUCKING. They worked with celebrities, brands and organisations to start a conversation and ultimately encourage people to join them and pledge to ‘stop sucking’ on straws.
The campaign "earned an organic social media reach of 304.6 million in its first 4 months and has reached over 40 countries and territories" (Lonely whale 2017). The success of this then initiated a second campaign called Strawless in Seattle. This year, it was announced that Seattle will ban the single use plastic straw. Watch the video below to see details.
Straws are a minor part of the problem of plastic pollution however "It's taking a stand on plastic pollution, it is really taking a stand on what needs to happen, a ban on all single-use plastic products,” says Greenpeace's Kate Melgesit.
Alternatives:
1) Paper Straws
2) Steel straws
3) No straws! - recyclable/reusable lids
Stocksy Earthhero Starbucks
I pledge to #stopsucking - will you?
Individuals are lazy. They will use whatever is given to them in cafés, bars and restaurants. If things are going to change, the establishments themselves have to stop putting straws in every drink. If this does not happen by their own initiative, then thegovernment could get involved by passing a law banning plastic straws... This issue can be easily fixed because there are so many alternatives that you mention in the post. It's exasperating!