In late 2018, Green Inside and Out had launched a campaign to work with restaurants in Huntington NY to take the Strawless pledge! The Strawless Summer campaign spearheaded by the Surfrider Foundation has expanded. We are asking restaurants to pledge to:
- Go completely Strawless
- Provide biodegradable (paper, bamboo) straws only upon request OR
- Provide reusable alternatives to plastic (stainless steel)
View / Download PDF: List of Non-Plastic Straw Distributors Serving Long Island
We thank the following Huntington, NY restaurants for taking the pledge:
bee-ORGANIC, 24 Wall St
Hatch, 286 Main St
Jonathan's Ristorante, 15 Wall St
Kai Poke, 328 Main St
Mac's Steakhouse, 12 Gerard St
New York Panini, 9 Wall St
Pazzo Paisanos, 345 Main St
Osteria da Nino, 292 Main St
Red Restaurant, 417 New York Ave
The Rust & Gold, 70 Gerard St
Sapsuckers Hops & Grub, 287 Main St
The Shed Restaurant, 54 New St
Stella Blue Bistro, 188 New York Ave
Why Straws?
- Over 500,000,000 plastic straws are used each day in the United States alone. These are usually used once and then tossed in the garbage, becoming a source of plastic pollution. See: Plastic Pollution Coalition: Last Plastic Straw.
- The average person uses 1.6 straws per day. Ocean Conservancy volunteers have picked up more than 9 million straws and stirrers from beaches and waterways over the 30+ year history of the International Coastal Cleanup. See: Ocean Conservancy: Skip the Straw.
- Straws pose a danger to sea turtles, fish and other ocean wildlife due to ingestion or suffocation.
- While Green Inside and Out does not advocate eating fish for various reasons, if people do eat fish, there is a concern that many fish ingest pieces of plastic which may lead to human exposure to plasticizers or other contaminants that adhere to the plastics.
- Why focus on straws? Because they are usually unnecessary, so can be avoided relatively easily, and they are rarely recycled.