There’s a lot going on re.- plastic straws in the mainstream Food News, these days. So, I’m going to hit the high points in this post aggregating the latest reports and announcements. We’ll start off with the most recent announcement from a major U.S. city and a major Canadian restaurant chain owner…
Our oceans and and beaches are increasingly being polluted by single-use plastics…
And that includes utensils, stir sticks, cups, plates and drink cup lids.
Seattle bans Plastic Straws…
The trendy, west coast city that spawned Starbuck’s, Microsoft and a bunch of other innovative ideas has led the way, again, banning plastic drinking straws. Under a measure that came into effect July 1, Seattle’s 5,000 restos must all use only reusable or compostable utensils, straws and cocktail picks. Yes, there is such a thing as a compostable plastic straw, but the City is recommending resto operators to avoid even those and revert to Paper.
Recipes International bans Plastic Straws across its businesses
Never heard of Recipes International? No surprised, It used to be Cara Operations, until a recent image re-craft designed to shed some of the baggage and flak that Cara took aboard over the years for its often unsatisfying, ubiquitous airline food. The company is banning plastic straws at all 19 of its resto operations, which include Swiss Chalet, Harvey’s, Pickle Barrel, The Keg and Milestones.
“Our goal is to enrich life in Canada…and that extends beyond our restaurants and guests, to our oceans, wildlife and environment,” said Frank Hennessey, Recipe Unlimited’s CEO, in a statement. “Straws are just one component of the work we’re undertaking to eliminate single use plastics from our supply chain and shift to recyclable or compostable materials wherever possible.”
The company says it will take a while to phase in the changes. It has to give suppliers time to gear up production of replacement paper straws.
Nation-wide ban brewing in the Philippines
The Philippines is the third biggest contributor of plastic wastes to the world’s oceans, next only to China and Indonesia, according to a recent audit of ocean waste. On hearing that, Philippines Senator Risa Hontiveros filed a bill seeking a national ban on single-use plastic straws and stirrers, there. If passed, the bill will provide heft fines for business that violate the new ban, as well as up to a year’s suspension of their business licenses.
Plastics ban spreading city-to-city, state to state in U.S.
In Canada, it’s estimated we use some 57 million plastic straws a day, Every day. In the states, where everything is bigger proportional to their population which is about ten times Canada’s, the figure of 500 million a day. Seems incredible, but it’s true.
And, of course, the problem extends to plastic eating utensils, stir sticks, lids, plates and cups, and other single-use plastic items in use world-wide today.
This report, recently aired on the NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, gives a pretty complete picture of the problem.
What can we all do?
For now, tell your counter server , “No straw, thanks,” if they have no alternative plastic…
~ Maggie J.