Paper Straws Helping Reduce Plastic Waste
Amidst the modern day environmental tragedy that is the amount of rubbish the world is generating the one small glimmer of hope we have is that there are some very passionate people that are trying to increase everybody’s awareness about the size of the problem and the urgent need to address it. The important part of this message is that every individual can make a difference and we shouldn’t be overwhelmed by the size of the problem and just give up.
As a business we have an even greater responsibility as we serve up to a thousand customers a day and many of these people hope or trust that in supplying them we have acted responsibly in managing and minimizing the impact our operation and subsequently their purchase has on our planet.
Reducing plastics has been challenging in the past
Obviously one of the biggest problems the world faces is the amount of plastics that are accumulating in landfills, waterways and the oceans. There are always alternatives to plastics but more often than not they are not quite as effective and are always more expensive. As a business we have been committed to minimizing our waste and over the next few blogs we’d like to discuss some of the initiatives that we have undertaken in order to do our part in keeping waste to a minimum.
Paper straws were a great starting point
The obvious starting point for us was to address the packaging that we use to serve our food for takeaways. As I mentioned before we serve up to a thousand customers a day and generally half those are takeaways. The first no brainer was to lose the plastic straws, something that we use once, generally only for a few minutes and then it is discarded and sits in landfill well beyond the lifespan of the person that used it. We undertook the switch to paper straws several years ago and while there was some initial friction from a few whiners, most of our customers embraced the change and recognized the fact that even though they may get a little soft if used for too long, knowing that it can be recycled, composted, or at worst thoroughly degraded should it end up in landfill made it all worthwhile.
The ocean doesn’t need more plastic in it!
“War on waste’s’ Craig Reucassel drove the point home in 2018 when he took “McChokey’ (a life-size model of a sea turtle made primarily out of drinking straws) to McDonalds headquarters to drive home the point that thousands of sea creatures are dying after ingesting or inhaling this unnecessary single use plastic. He may not have changed McDonalds policy but he certainly made us stop and think that despite the cost, we need to do our part to try and start healing the planet no matter how insignificant it can seem in context of the bigger picture. We would like to thank all our customers who have noticed and supported this initiative.
