February 22 is National Skip the Straw Day

Tomorrow is National Skip the Straw Day. At Environment America, we're celebrating with a pledge to say "no" to single-use plastic products we don't need, starting with the humble plastic drinking straw.
Every individual straw may be small, but straws -- and other single-use plastic products -- have an out-sized impact on the environment. That's why we're skipping the straw this Friday -- and why we think every day should be Skip the Straw Day.
Will you take the pledge to skip the straw, and commit to reducing the amount of single-use plastic in your daily life?
You probably won't use any individual plastic straw for more than a couple of minutes, but once you throw it away, it will stay in the environment for decades, if not centuries. Some plastic products take 450 years to completely break down -- and some may never disappear at all.¹
Instead, plastics just break into smaller and smaller pieces. That's bad news for birds, turtles, whales and other ocean wildlife who can then mistake garbage for food. Last year, a sperm whale washed ashore with over 1,000 pieces of plastic in its stomach.²
More than 8 million metric tons of plastic flow into the ocean every year.³ Plastic straws may be convenient, but the planet just can't afford any more disposable plastic "stuff" entering the environment. If you can, quitting straws is a great place to start.
Participate in National Skip the Straw day this year by pledging to say "no" to plastic straws.
As individuals, we can't solve the problem of plastic waste on our own. But each action makes a difference -- by dumping less waste on the planet AND by making bolder changes possible. Whether you swap your plastic straw for a renewable or reusable alternative, or just decide to go without, your choice to cut back on plastic use is important.
Join Environment America and our friends at U.S. PIRG in taking this step towards a future free of plastic pollution. Take the pledge: Say "no" to plastic straws tomorrow, and commit to reduce your use of single use plastic.
Thank you,
Ed Johnson
President

1. Laura Parker, "We Made Plastic. We Depend On It. Now We're Drowning In It," National Geographic, June 2018.
2. Trevor Nace, "Yet Another Dead Whale Found With Pounds Of Plastic In Its Stomach," Forbes, November 26, 2018.
3. Jenna Jambeck, et al., "Plastic Waste Inputs from Land into the Ocean," Science, February 12, 2015.

Donate today. A cleaner, greener future is within our reach. Your donation today can help us bring the vision we share a little closer to reality. Environment America, Inc. 1543 Wazee Street, Suite 410, Denver, CO 80202, (303) 801-0581 Federal Advocacy Office: 600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20003, (202) 683-1250 Member Questions or Requests: 1-800-401-6511. Facebook | Twitter