McDonald’s to Ditch Plastic Straws in Australia!

McDonald’s announced another move targeting the plastic straw. The company will now phase out plastic straws across Australia by 2020, instead opting for alternatives made out of biodegradable paper! According to the company, the decision is part of a larger and long-term effort on a global scale to find alternatives to plastic straws. A trial run of the new paper options will begin at two Australian restaurants next month.

Robert Sexton, McDonald’s Australia director of supply chain, explained to ABC News that the company had been working on finding viable alternatives to the “regular” straws made of plastic for some time now.

“We know plastic straws is a topic our customers are passionate about and we will find a viable solution,” Sexton said. “As one of the world’s largest restaurant businesses, we know we have the responsibility and opportunity to make significant change.”

According to environmental groups, Australians use around 10 million straws a day – or 3.5 billion a year. McDonald’s’ new anti-plastic straw switch was applauded by Greenpeace Australia, but it also brought some criticism due to concern over a lack of flexibility that would accommodate the needs of people with disabilities.

A ban on straws was also recently announced by Woolworths supermarket, which will stop selling them by the end of the year. The decision will keep 134 million straws from going into circulation a year.

The war on plastic straws may seem like a small change, considering the multitude of plastic items we produce, use, and throw away. Unfortunately, it is the plastic straw’s small size that actually makes it very difficult to recycle, meaning they only add to the problem of ocean plastic Pollution in the end. To find out how you can be a part of the change by ditching straws and other single-use plastics, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!

Image source: tamaiyuya/Flickr