FAST COMPANY: In the U.S., 500 million plastic straws are used every day and many of those straws and stirrers end up in the environment, according to Better Alternatives Now, or BAN 2.0, an analysis done by several pollution research groups.
The movement to ban straws and other single-use plastics is growing. In May, a Girl Scout convinced Alaska Airlines to give up plastic straws. On Thursday, Bon Appétit, a large food service company, announced it is getting rid of plastic straws in all 1,000 of its cafes across 33 states, including locations like AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Getty Museum, Vassar College, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Portland in Oregon, where students worked to outlaw plastic straws on campus in April. The company plans to fully switch to paper straws by September 2019.
