Bans on Plastic Straws in Restaurants Expand to More Cities

The latest is Malibu, California. Before that came Seattle; Davis and San Luis Obispo, California; and Miami Beach and Fort Myers, Florida.

They’re all cities that have banned or limited the use of plastic straws in restaurants. Straws, routinely placed in glasses of water or soda, represent a small percentage of the plastic that’s produced and consumed but often end up on beaches and in oceans.

Advocates said laws aimed at cutting back on the use of plastic straws can help spur more significant behavioral changes.

“I think a lot of people feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the plastic problem,” said Diana Lofflin, the founder of StrawFree.org, an activist organization based in San Diego. “Giving up plastic straws is a small step, and an easy thing for people to get started on. From there, we can move on to larger projects.”

The City Council in Malibu voted on Monday to bar restaurants from giving out plastic straws, utensils and stirrers. Similar measures are being considered in other coastal cities, including Berkeley, California. A bevy of restaurants across the country have also voluntarily stopped providing straws.

It’s not just happening in the United States. Scotland plans to be rid of plastic straws by 2019, and Taiwan is banning single-use plastic items, including straws, cups and shopping bags, by 2030.

Around the world, people have wrestled with the environmental effect of plastics, which do not naturally degrade and are frequently used once before settling in landfills, clogging storm drains or collecting in the ocean, often for long periods of time. Many countries have banned, limited or taxed the use of plastic bags.

Some of the leading organizations in the plastics industry have said they agree with the idea of reducing the use of straws, but have said laws are the wrong way to go about it. They haven’t fought the laws with the same vigor they used to oppose bag bans.

The American Chemistry Council has taken a softer approach to straw bans than it did with bags, suggesting that restaurants provide straws only when a customer asks for one.

“We believe providing straws through an ‘on-demand’ system gives customers choice and helps prevent waste by ensuring that straws are distributed only to those who need them,” said Steve Russell, vice president of the organization’s plastics division.

Scott DeFife, vice president of government affairs for the Plastics Industry Association, said in an interview that the problem of ocean debris was complex, stemming more from inadequate resources for waste management.

“We, as a nation, are not going to solve our marine debris issues by banning straws in restaurants,” he said.

He said straws had become “the new poster child” for environmentalists.