Sucking sugary drinks through tubular plastic in the hot summer sun should become a thing of the past, say local entrepreneurs Evan Guiton and Carly Daley. The pair is spearheading a campaign to rid the Sunshine Coast of plastic straws by 2019.
“I know summer is coming and there will be lots of cold drinks and lots of straws and I wanted to make sure that got nipped in the bud,” said Guiton, who launched the campaign, Straw Free Coast BC, in mid-March.
Guiton said plastic harms the marine environment and she wants businesses to reduce the risk of Coast plastic ending up in the ocean. Guiton and Daley’s mutual online straw abhorrence united them to push for the cause. “I’ve been promoting saying no to straws on my sustainable living blog for a few years now and then Evan started the Strawless Coast campaign on Instagram,” Daley said.
Guiton is reaching out directly to restaurants and cafés from Pender Harbour to Gibsons and she will be manning a booth at the upcoming Earth Day celebrations in Roberts Creek, while Daley uses her 14,000 Facebook followers to promote the campaign. “I knew by using my voice I could get a lot of people’s attention,” Daley said.
That includes Strait Coffee co-owner Grace Bland. She said she has been offering biodegradable straws for a year and is now considering switching to paper. “I saw on Facebook that Carly is doing a promo and trying to get everybody straw-free here,” she said.
Bland is looking for paper straw purveyors, but at three times the cost of plastic, “price is a barrier,” she said. “Everybody is trying to source out cheaper paper straws.”
So far, Guiton has reached 35 restaurants and 16 have committed to switching. “If they do want to keep offering straws, I am encouraging them to use a biodegradable or compostable alternative,” Guiton said. Some are already straw free, such as the Wobbly Canoe, while others, such as The Daily Roast Fine Coffee Company in Sechelt, started transitioning prior to the campaign’s launch.
Sandie Lanskail, owner of The Daily Roast, is still deciding whether she’ll stick to paper. She said plastic straws cost two cents each while paper can cost anywhere between 10 and 15 cents. To keep margins manageable, they are storing paper straws behind the counter for now.
“The theory is that if you don’t have them out, you’ll be using less,” said Lanskail. “It’s just like the plastic bag. It’s coming. People are finally becoming aware of what’s going on.”
Mary Lee Newnham, owner of Emelle’s Catering Market Bistro in Gibsons, also keeps her straws tucked away. She will be making the switch to paper next week but admits she hasn’t tested them. “I am old enough to remember when all straws came in paper, so I know the challenges we had back then,” she said. “They would collapse in my milkshake and if they sit too long in a drink they might [deteriorate] … so I am hopeful they will be stronger and hold up a little bit better.” Newnham said she will be extending the strawless practice to her businesses in Vancouver, too, where the movement to drop plastic is going strong.
White Spot and Triple O’s president Warren Erhart supports the effort and a policy to reduce single-use packaging has been proposed by the City of Vancouver.
While the Sunshine Coast doesn’t have any formal straw-free policies, Gibsons councillor Silas White posted his approval for the campaign on social media. “I love that the strawless movement is community-based, as the spirit, size and geography of the Coast lend themselves really well to making some serious headway and international leadership on an issue like this,” he told Coast Reporter in an email.
Of all the businesses on the Coast, fast-food chains could break the campaign’s back, which is why Guiton plans to tackle them last. “If we get to the point where every single establishment on the Sunshine Coast is straw-free and it is becoming a major marketing and tourism grab, those people will have to face the campaign eventually,” she said.
Coast Reporter contacted several fast-food outlets but did not receive a response in time for deadline.
While most Coast diners are still stuck sucking through plastic, Guiton said it’s about the baby steps. “People just need a little nudge and this campaign provides encouragement and support and something to rally around,” she said. “Straws are just the beginning.”
