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As part of the project, straws are collected from local restaurants and turned into strawbales, which are then featured in local art exhibits and parades.
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Cities like Seattle and Boulder, Colo., are making the effort to reduce straw waste in foodservice establishments. And now, Indianapolis is stepping up to the plate.
Jim Poyser, former NUVO managing editor and current executive director of Earth Charter Indiana, has launched a project called Strawbale, which aims to help restaurants in Indianapolis reduce straw waste. As part of the project, Poyser collects straws from local restaurants and create strawbales from the straws, which are then featured in local art exhibits and parades. In addition, Poyser asks restaurants to commit to not handing out straws unless requested, further reducing the amount of straws used on a daily basis.
NUVO has more:
Those tiny plastic tubes that come in nearly every beverage we consume.
We don’t ask for them, but invariably they are there, waiting for us to suck our soda, water, tea, iced coffee, etc. through. Then we toss them in the trash, or the recycling bin. Or you’re a complete asshole and we throw them on the ground or out of our car window.
The fact is, no matter where we throw them — even if we’re eco-conscious and make sure they go into the recycling — they inevitably end up in our environment. In America, according to the National Park Service, 500 million plastic straws end up going into our landfills every day, which in turn end up most often in our waterways. For the mathematicians out there, that is 175 billion a year pouring into our creeks, rivers, lakes and oceans.
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