Tell McDonald’s: Hold The Plastic Straws
McDonald’s is one of the largest distributors of plastic straws in the world — straws that wind up polluting our ocean and environment and harming sea turtles, whales and other wildlife. The fast food chain is already phasing out straws in their UK restaurants. Help us convince McDonald’s to do the same in the US.
Plastic Straws Threaten the Environment
We’re going to go out on a limb here. We’re going to assume you know, deep in your heart, that plastic straws are a tiny deal with the devil. Yes, they’re as convenient as heck, and restaurants hand them to you for free.
But you know that the cylinder between your lips will lie in an overflowing landfill for your great-great-great-great-great grandchild to deal with. Or, worse yet, you’ll find it stuck up the nostril of a sea turtle, or in your beer or drinking water in the form of tiny plastic beads.1,2
How You Can Help
McDonald’s is one of the biggest straw distributors in the world. If they change, most of their competitors will follow.
Right now, the company’s executives are deciding whether or not to stop handing out plastic straws willy-nilly. The stores in the United Kingdom, which Mr. Easterbrook used to oversee, have already started phasing them out. And, starting this month, they’ll offer straws there made of biodegradable paper, wrapped in recycled paper.3
If they can do that in jolly old London, they can certainly do it here in the USA. Tell Steve Easterbrook, the Big Cheese at McDonald’s, that it’s time to stop handing out plastic straws.
Every straw you and I and our 330 million fellow Americans absent-mindedly pick up adds up to an ocean of junk in no time flat. But every petition signature sent to Mr. Easterbrook at McDonald’s adds up to a sea change in attitude.
1. Jane J. Lee, “How Did Sea Turtle Get Straw Up His Nose?,” National Geographic, August 17, 2015.
2. “Is There Plastic In Your Beer? Probably,” AmericanCraftBeer.com, April 18, 2018.
3. Madison Flager, “McDonald’s Is Phasing Out Plastic Straws“, Delish.com, April 4, 2018.