Coronado pizzeria Wheat and Water had always disliked the waste from food service and other industries, but seeing plastic litter on pristine beaches was the last straw. The restaurant, along with 99 other eateries, is part of Surfrider San Diego鈥檚聽Ocean Friendly Restaurants Campaign, which aims to cut disposable plastic waste.
Participating restaurateurs pledged to follow recycling practices and avoid plastic bags, bottles, utensils and takeout containers. This week, they added plastic straws to that list.
At聽Wheat and Water on Thursday, Surfrider hosted a celebration of the 100 restaurants participating in the pledge, and launched a new initiative: 鈥淧lastic Straws Suck.鈥�
Through that campaign, it鈥檚 asking participating restaurants to either provide straws only upon request, or eliminate them entirely from their establishments from Oct. 12 to Dec. 31. That should be enough time to either give them up permanently, or switch to paper straws, Surfrider organizers hope.
鈥淒o you really need a straw to get your beverage down?鈥� asked Wheat and Water founder Ted Cochrane. 鈥淣ot really, you can get by without it.鈥�
Americans use 500 million straws every day, according to the聽National Park Service. That鈥檚 enough to fill 125 school buses per day, the park service noted, or enough to encircle the Earth two and a half times.
The lightweight plastic tubes pose a hazard to fish and sea turtles, which can ingest or become entangled in them. Many zoos and aquariums already avoid straws because of the risk to their animals.
In 2011, a 9-year-old boy, Milo Cress, started the organization聽Be Straw Free聽to reduce use of plastic straws to save resources and landfill space.
The cause took off, and Surfrider and other environmental organizations took up the call to go strawless.
For Cochrane, it was an easy call. Raised near the water in San Diego, he always cherished the ocean, and was dismayed to see plastic waste on tropical beaches during his travels. When he opened Wheat and Water, he developed serving practices with that in mind.
The restaurant uses washable linens, dishes and flatware, recycles cardboard and other materials and donates kitchen scraps to a community garden composting program, Cochrane said. With the exception of messy toddlers, he thinks his customers are just fine without straws.
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