Reduce Waste with Reusable Straw Kits
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- By Sharon
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Did you know plastic straws are made in 10 minutes, used for about 20 minutes, then remain on earth forever, since they are not biodegradable?
According to the website, The Last Plastic Straw, “500 million plastic straws are used and discarded every day in the United States alone. That’s 175 billion a year filtering into landfills and littering our waterways and oceans.” Put in different terms “the US consumption of straws is enough to wrap around the earth’s circumference 2.5 times a day”! Clearly these statistics cannot be ignored.
In January of this year, California was the first state to bar full-service restaurants from automatically giving out single-use plastic straws. Always ahead of socio-cultural trends, the city of San Luis Obispo passed its own “straw on request” only ordinance a year earlier. And this past Earth Day (April 22) the city of Los Angeles passed an even tougher law that requires all sit-down restaurants, as well as fast food outlets and food trucks to completely eliminate single-use plastic straws by October 1 of this year. Can San Luis Obispo be far behind?
So what’s the lover of a tall iced tea or glass of lemonade to do? HumanKind has an answer for you! We are now carrying reusable straw kits from, fair trade company Lumily, that can be tucked in a purse or pocket and brought with you to your favorite restaurant. Each kit contains an 8.5” stainless steel straw and cleaning brush tucked into a beautiful Guatemalan fabric pouch. The stainless steel straw is dishwasher safe and will last for years. Each unique fabric pouch is made by up-cycling traditional Guatemalan women’s skirts, called cortes, created from handmade fabric woven on a traditional wooden foot loom. The pouches are sewn by women artisans following fair trade guidelines. And in keeping with those guidelines, Lumily contributes a portion of its profits to fund school tuition and books, medical procedures, housing allowances, food accounts, and more for its artisans and their families.
Sounds like a win-win proposition to me!
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