When faced with paper or plastic, more businesses and their customers are saying, “Paper.”
Starbucks SBUX, +1.89%[1] is the latest company to ban the use of plastic straws[2]. It will replace them with alternative materials or strawless lids from more than 28,000 stores by 2020, the coffee giant said Monday. “For our partners and customers, this is a significant milestone to achieve our global aspiration of sustainable coffee, served to our customers in more sustainable ways,” said Chief Executive Kevin Johnson.
This green trend has been gathering steam in recent months. The city of Seattle has banned single-use plastic straws[3] and utensils from all of its 5,000 restaurants, as of July 1. Customers who specially request straws will receive compostable ones. It is believed to be the first city to take that measure.
“This applies to all food service businesses, including restaurants, grocery stores, delis, coffee shops, food trucks, and institutional cafeterias,” according to a statement by the office of Seattle’s mayor, Jenny Durkan.
Smaller U.S. cities, including Malibu, Davis and San Luis Obispo, Calif., Seattle and Miami Beach and Fort Myers, Fla., have all banned or limited plastic straws. Food and beverage establishments have turned to paper, bamboo, metal and even glass to replace plastic straws.
Seattle’s Canadian neighbor Vancouver will ban plastic drinking straws[4] next year. Scotland also plans to end the use of plastic straws to help stop marine pollution. And Taiwan is also planing to ban plastic straws by 2030[5].
Other companies and cities have also discussed similar moves.
The cruise line Royal Caribbean RCL, +3.05%[6] announced in June it will stop using plastic straws[7] by the end of 2018. Guests who request a straw will get a paper one, starting in 2019. The furniture maker IKEA made a similar announcement this week: It will remove all single-use plastic products[8] from its stores and in-store restaurants by 2020.
The retailer said it wants to be more “climate positive” and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reduce its “footprint” on the Earth.
The call for more paper straws has also come from customers. An online petition entitled, “Starbucks, stop using plastic straws[9],” garnered nearly 139,000 signatures. In April, Starbucks SBUX removed all plastic straws from its U.K. locations. The British government said[10] it would ban the use of plastic straws in restaurants by the end of this year.
New York City lawmaker proposes similar ban on plastic straws
Plastic — and...