Thursday, April 25, 2024

Starbucks to ditch plastic straws by 2020

First Published:

 

Starbucks has announced plans to eliminate plastic straws from all of its locations within two years, citing environmental concerns.

The company said Monday that by 2020, it will be using straws made from biodegradable materials like paper.

It is also making a straw-less lid available at 8,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada for certain drinks.

They will begin to appear in Seattle and Vancouver Starbucks this fall, with phased rollouts within the U.S. and Canada to follow next year.

Straws have been a high-profile issue as concerns over plastic in the ocean grows. Ikea, McDonalds, Harvey’s, Swiss Chalet, A&W and the Keg have also recently pledged to replace their plastic straws with ones that are compostable or biodegradable.

Straws add up to about 2,000 tons of the nearly 9 million tons of plastic waste that ends up in the water each year.

 

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