Finn is excited to see California's first plastic straw ban
Finn got excited when he heard the news from Malibu, California. On Monday, February 26th, 2018, the City Council of Malibu voted on a ban for plastic straws to go into effect this summer.
In the U.S., we use 500 million plastic straws a day. This shocking amount of straw waste accumulates to wrap the circumference of the earth 2.5 times per year! Now imagine that magnified by global consumption. But it starts with local efforts. The city of Malibu will be California's first city with an official ban on single use plastic straws in restaurants and for food vendors. They will stop offering or selling plastic straws, stirrers and utensils to customers. The Businesses have until June 1, 2018 to make the necessary changes to swap out the plastic items for ones made of paper, wood or bamboo.
Finn is passionate about this ban. For him, plastic straws are still the biggest enemy on the beach and in our oceans. It is such a shame that these non-biodegradable items still are widely tolerated. They are used for minutes and literally last forever. As of early 2018, data from Ocean Conservancy’s TIDES system shows that straws/stirrers are the 11th most found ocean trash in cleanups, making up about 3% of recovered trash. All these straws and plastic polluting our oceans is having a negative impact on marine life. Straws are also especially dangerous to seabirds, as they can be easily picked up and swallowed, suffocating and choking the bird. In fact, over 1 million seabirds die each year from ingesting plastic.The new law marks the beach town's latest move to crack down on the distribution of single-use plastics. Malibu was early to adopt the now statewide ban of plastic shopping bags, passing an ordinance in 2008 to keep bags from drifting into the ocean and harming marine life.
Image By Chris Jordan (via U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters) / CC BY 2.0
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