Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee chain, says it will replace plastic straws in all of its stores around the world by 2020.
The move to replace plastic straws is an effort by Starbucks to be more environmentally friendly. The company also said it will also use lids designed not to need straws. The Starbucks announcement follows one made by McDonald's that it will switch to paper straws in the United Kingdom and Ireland by next year (2019), and test alternatives to plastic straws in some U.S. locations.
Environmental activists have been pressuring businesses to ditch plastic straws because they can end up in the ocean and hurt marine life. The push gained traction after a viral video in 2015 showed rescuers removing a straw from a sea turtle's nose.
Local governments have also been taking up the cause of plastic straws. Last week, Seattle banned the use of plastic straws and utensils in food service outlets, and Starbucks says it already offers alternative straws there.
While straws have become a high profile environmental issue, they add about 1,800 tonnes of the more than 8 million tonnes of plastic waste that is dumped into waters each year. Also, Starbucks, which primarily sells hot coffee, does not use that many plastic straws. The company did not say if it planned to replace plastic straws with straws made of another material such as paper or discontinue using straws altogether.
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