STARBUCKS HAS JOINED THE LIST OF PLACES AND COMPANIES to announce plans to eliminate plastic straws in its businesses.
With some 28,000 stores, the coffee seller is the largest corporation to take the step, a move pushed by activists to decrease the amount of plastic waste in the environment, especially in the oceans.
The company says the plan to eliminate plastic straws by 2020 will will mean one billion less straw in circulation.
PLASTIC STRAWS NO, LIDS YES
Starbucks will replace plastic straws with flat, plastic lids with raised lips that coffee lovers can drink from – sort of adult “sippy cups.” Drinks that require straws, like domed-lid frappuccinos, will be served with straws made from paper or compostable plastic.
A GROWING MOVEMENT
Although they account for a relatively small portion of the bulk of plastic waste in the oceans, plastic straws have become a rallying point for environmentalist, not the least because of the risk they pose for marine life. A gruesome eight-minute video of a straw being extracted from a sea turtles’ nostril in Costa Rica has been viewed more than 11 million times on YouTube and is credited with arousing public awareness of the massive problem of plastic pollution.
Governments and businesses as diverse as the City of Seattle and MGM Resorts have recently announced bans or plans to ban plastic straws. Cities like San Francisco and New York are said to be considering the idea. France has approved a ban on plastic straws, plates and utensils to become effective in 2020 and British Prime Minister Theresa May presented a proposal earlier this year to prohibit the sale of plastic straws, drink-stirrers and cotton swabs in the U.K. Similar measures have been proposed by the European Union.
PRINCIPAL SOURCE: “Starbucks is eliminating plastic straws from all stores,” CNN Money