The Last Straw

Plastic straws along with plastic cup lids are the most common plastic items beach clean-up volunteers collect. Seemingly harmless, plastic straws and cup lids don’t weigh much and most often don’t make it to the trash bins. Left behind at the beach, they get blown about and eventually end up in the ocean entangling marine animals and being mistaken as fish food.

We’ve all seen the YouTube video of the plastic straw embedded in a sea turtle’s nose that went viral in 2015. It was a very painful video to watch.

The Beach and Coastal Resources Advisory Committee is proposing a ban on the use of disposable plastic beverage cup lids and straws. All businesses, hotels and restaurants and vendors on or adjacent to the beach shall not include or offer disposable plastic beverage cup lids and straws when serving beverages to patrons or customers on or adjacent to the beach.