Guest Blog Post | Jamie Green
On a recent trip to NYC I was lucky enough to be in the city at the same time council member Rafael L Espinal Jr and the crew from Lonely Whale went head to head with the City Council to push for a bill to completely ban plastic straws from New York city. The idea is that plastic straws would be illegal to use in the city and the law would be enforced by a fine starting at $100 if you or your venue where caught using them.
It is estimated that there are 500 million plastic straws used every single day in America, this ban would be an amazing start to abolishing single use plastic.
Lonely Whale, a non for profit pushing for the ban is co-founded by none other then heart throb Adrian Grenier who played the lead role in the t.v series and movie Entourage. As a born and bred New Yorker, Adrian explained the importance of this bill for the city itself and the worlds’ oceans. He explained that “New York is surrounded by two big rivers which lead right into the ocean…we are an ocean city” he also spoke about how straws are a gateway plastic and if we can start with banning the straw others types of single use plastics will follow.
It’s exciting to think if New York City can do this, no place in the world has an excuse not to follow, we have some many alternative options available such as paper straws, bamboo straws, metal straws and heck why not just no straw?
To support the movement check out lonely whale