Sucking it up for planet: Restaurateurs, customers heed call to go strawless
A growing crowd of clubs, bars and restaurants in and around Vancouver have reached their last straw.
The watering holes and eateries, in locations that stretch from the ’burbs to downtown’s Granville Strip, are ditching disposable, plastic straws amid a broader push by policy-makers and environmental groups to cut down on the reliance of single-use plastics. Some, like the Commodore Ballroom, have barred them entirely, while others like White Spot have made them available by request only.
Warren Erhart, president of White Spot and Triple O’s, said he supported the movement to cut straws.
“I think that clearly it’s the right thing to do from the point of the environment,” Erhart said, adding that he’s now working with suppliers to test solid-paper straws that would work for drinks like milkshakes. A strawless lid could be next.
“A lot of people are telling us they can do without that straw, thank you very much,” Erhart said, adding that elementary-aged youngsters are among those customers, telling servers their Pirate Paks don’t need them.
Erhart said the company has already “knocked about three to four million straws out of the system.” For context, White Spot and Triple O’s use about 13 million straws per year, he said.
Martin Haulena, a veterinarian at the Vancouver Aquarium, offered his kudos to restaurateurs that have moved away from offering plastic straws, and to people who are saying no to them.
“All of these things are such positive steps. It’s just so awesome at how quickly folks are progressing. I remember being a young, active university person jumping up and down and all mad about this, that and the other thing in the environment. But now everybody is,” Haulena said.
“Everybody really, really cares and are making efforts in their own personal lives, which is probably where it matters most. But when businesses take it upon themselves, that’s so great, too.”
The problem with plastics is that they can end up being ingested by animals that mistake them for food, Haulena said.
He cited several recent examples of animals harmed or killed by plastics, including a sea turtle with a straw stuck deep in its nostril and albatross chicks that have died from diets packed with plastic garbage. And while it’s a less-visible issue, degraded, micro plastics are particularly concerning because they jam up the feeding mechanisms of planktonic organisms.
“That effects everyone by decreasing the food source for animals up the food chain, (and by passing) those plastics up the food chain, where they can cause more chronic problems associated with toxicity,” he said.
The City of Vancouver has recently proposed a single-use-item reduction strategy that would restrict food vendors from automatically providing customers with straws. It would also introduce reduction plans for disposable cups and plastic bags, among other things. The city is accepting feedback on the strategy until April 13.
By 2050, oceans could hold more plastics than fish by weight, according to a report by the World Economic Forum. UN Environment launched a five-year #CleanSeas campaign in 2017 to raise awareness of marine litter and the problems it causes, and several organizations, including Ocean Wise and the Surfrider Foundation, are fighting plastic pollution.