New Hampshire restaurants avoiding plastic straws to help environment
Sustainable Seacoast spearheading the 'Skip the Straw' movement
Sustainable Seacoast spearheading the 'Skip the Straw' movement
Sustainable Seacoast spearheading the 'Skip the Straw' movement
A number of New Hampshire restaurants are joining in an effort to reduce waste and help the environment by getting rid of or limiting their use of plastic straws.
Plastic straws are not able to be recycled and often end up in landfills and the ocean. Advocates say reducing how many are used is a small change and an easy way to prevent pollution.
“It's been, like, this explosion over the last couple of months especially,” said Jennifer Kennedy, executive director of the Blue Ocean Society, of the interest in reducing plastic straw use.
“It caught the restaurant industry's attention especially, because we use thousands and thousands of straws on a monthly basis,” said Carolyn Dagostino, director of operations at BRGR Bar in Portsmouth.
Dagostino felt compelled to do something, so she partnered with Sustainable Seacoast, an organization that's helping restaurants reduce their impact on the environment. Three months ago, BRGR Bar shifted to a “straw on demand” policy.
“It's still available,” Dagostino said. “If you want a straw, you can still get one. We also do something where if you bring in your own reusable straw, we give you 10% off your bill.”
At Laney and Lu Café in Exeter, no plastic is used at all.
“So all of our packaging is either compostable, recyclable, biodegradable or reusable,” said general manager Stefanie Ramey.
Ramey said customers appreciate what they're trying to do.
“Sustainability is one of our core values, and reducing our footprint and taking care of the planet and its resources is really important to us, so since we opened our doors, that's been the commitment from the beginning,” she said.
“A big problem with the straws in the waste stream is that they're not really recyclable,” Kennedy said. “They just kind of gum up the recycling equipment."
The Blue Ocean Society said more than 2,000 straws were picked up during local beach cleanups last year.
“There's a variety of other marine life that can swallow the straws,” Kennedy said. “They can get tangled up in other plastics, like balloon strings and strapping bands and things like that, so any plastic we can eliminate to that environment, which is already under lots of threats to begin with, is great.”
The Blue Ocean Society is always looking for volunteers to help them with beach cleanups every month. Learn more at blueoceansociety.org.
Nearly 40 restaurants in New Hampshire and Maine are supporting the “Skip the Straw” movement.