Southern Utah business owners join movement to eliminate plastic straws

July 18, 2018 Utah Channel 3

ST. GEORGE — From Starbucks to American Airlines, national corporations have been doing away with plastic straws. And St. George businesses are starting to follow suit.

Nationally, 500 million plastic straws are used each day, according to Eco-Cycle. And according to Strawless Ocean, the majority of plastic straws end up in the ocean or landfills because they’re too small and lightweight to recycle.

Reusable straws that Affogato Love sells for $1.50 each in St. George, Utah, photo date not specified | Photo courtesy of Elise West, Affogato Love, St. George News

As a business owner of the St. George coffee truck Affogato Love, Elise West understands the amount of straws that food and beverage businesses go through. Although the winter is different – when Affogato sells more hot drinks than cold – West estimates during the spring and summer that 100 drinks are ordered on average per day, amounting to 700 straws used each week.

Affogato announced it was no longer using plastic straws in June, but West said this is something she’s been wanting to do for much longer as a result of the impact of posts on social media, such as the video of a straw being pulled out of a sea turtle’s nose in 2015.

“It’s all about education,” West said.

Originally, West wanted to purchase paper straws for Affogato but found out they can cost up to five times more than plastic straws, which means she would have to increase the price of Affogato’s drinks. Now, Affogato sells reusable, BPA-free straws made out of recycled plastic material for $1.50 each.

In addition to Affogato, the Painted Pony restaurant and George’s Corner Restaurant have also joined the movement in using less straws this summer.

Nicki Richards, one of the owners for George’s and Painted Pony, said instead of completely discarding straws, her restaurants started serving straws upon request. Cards placed at the restaurants’ tables, as well as a notification on their menus, state that straws will be served upon request.

“I don’t think in the customer service industry we can completely stop using plastic straws,” Richards said, “at least in the near future. But we do our best to gently educate our guests on what we’re doing.”

Richards said she understand the desire to have a straw, because she’s a straw person herself. But she also said she recycles and is grateful some St. George restaurants have caught on to the movement.

“I think most women with lipstick on want that straw,” she said.

Both West and Richards said they’ve received mostly positive feedback from their customers.

“We’ve just had a wonderful response,” West said.

Nationally, companies like Starbucks, American Airlines, Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt Hotels have presented plans to remove plastic straws, according to The Associated Press.

So far in Utah, the movement of going strawless has gained more attention up north, with over 95 restaurants committing to the “Strawless in Salt Lake City” campaign, organized by SLC Air Protectors. However, a spokesperson from SLC Air Protectors told St. George News they are looking for a person or organization to spearhead the movement in Southern Utah because it hasn’t seen as much progress as up north.

SLC Air Protectors also has a petition on Change.org with over 1,800 signatures. To learn more about SLC Air Protector’s strawless movement and petition, visit the group’s website.

Email: mheckenliable@stgnews.com

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