GO STRAWLESS!!

March 01, 2018

On February 14, 2018, Queen Elizabeth banned straws and plastic bottles on estate properties as part of an effort to cut back on plastic.

In an effort to keep up with the monarchy, Georgetown Garden Club Conservation Chairman Lee Child has written to the Georgetown Business Improvement District, asking that Georgetown, a historic neighborhood in Washington, DC, adopt “Strawless in Georgetown.”

“Plastic straws are not recyclable,” she wrote. “They end up in landfills, defiantly undecomposed for two hundred years, or they float out into the sea and find their way into the nostril of an endangered sea turtle. Plastic straws ... contribute to a mass of plastic that will one day – by 2050 experts predict – literally outweigh all the fish in the sea.”

The Conservation Chairman is asking local businesses and restaurants voluntarily to offer compostable or recyclable options to plastic straws – or ask patrons to forgo the straws altogether.

“Strawless in Georgetown” is just one of such efforts around the country. This July, in Seattle, Washington, an ordinance will go into effect banning plastic straws and utensils to curb plastic waste across the city. Manhattan Beach (outside Los Angeles) and Santa Cruz have adopted similar ordinances and other communities are considering ways to promote sustainable alternatives.

Download the GCA Position Paper on Waste Management.

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