Order a cocktail, bubble tea, or an iced coffee, and Hong Kong restaurants and stores will most likely hand you a plastic straw (or two), sometimes even individually wrapped in its own plastic sleeve. These disposable straws are used for a few minutes then discarded only to end up in a landfill – or worse, the ocean.
The Last Straw Movement, launched earlier this month by Sea Shepherd Asia Director Gary Stokes and his brother Andy on World Oceans Day, is aiming to tackle the single-use plastic problem.
Their first target is, of course, the drinking straw: as Gary points out, anyone who’s ever participated in a beach clean-up in Hong Kong has probably noticed the alarming number of straws found in the washed-up debris.
The Last Straw Movement’s paper straws
The initiative has been producing green paper straws that they expect to start appearing in F&B venues across Asia in the next six months.
“Rather than requesting that a restaurant or bar reduce its use of plastic straws or even just say no to straws, we have come up with a realistic and responsible alternative that is both eco-friendly and fun,” Gary said in a statement.
“The main issue is that people generally agree that plastic is bad, but when no alternatives are provided, that is usually where the conversation ends, we aim to change that!”
Plastic waste on a beach (illustration). Photo: Kai Schreiber via Flickr
The new straw, composed of sustainably-produced eucalyptus pulp, is 100 percent biodegradable, disintegrating within just four to six weeks. It’s a blink of an eye compared to plastic straws, which can harm or kill wildlife and take more than a century to completely break down.
So far in Hong Kong, the straws have been supplied to three restaurants: Hemingway’s by the Bay in Discovery Bay, Mavericks in Pui O beach, and Why 50 in Sheung Wan.
The “Holy Grail” for the Stokes brothers, after hopefully conquering “hotels, private clubs, coffee shops, [and] schools”, would be to get mega food chain McDonald’s on board.
According to the Last Straw Movement, it is estimated that the fast food corporation distributes 60 million plastic straws worldwide every single day.
So the next time you order a drink, think about declining the (usually unnecessary) plastic straw and ask the restaurant management if they’ve considered paper straws.
