The Final Straw

It appears the next front in the ongoing battle for sustainability has been identified, and it is plastic drinking straws. A group of London environmentalists, frustrated with the disposable, largely superfluous devices now de rigeur with almost any restaurant beverage, has launched Straw Wars to try and cut down on their use. The campaign asks businesses in London's SoHo distric to refrain from offering straws unless a customer specifically requests one. According to a counter on the campaign's site, 30 businesses are currently on board.

Straws have their place (if you've ever spent time in a hospital, you were likely thankful for them), but it's true that they are a blight on the environment. Difficult to impossible to recycle and small enough that they often escape the waste stream into the ecosystem, they're right up their with plastic shopping bags. It seems unlikely that they'll be subject to the same kind of ban activity that plastic bags have seen in recent years, but who knows.

One thing is clear: the Straw Wars folks passed on a perfectly serviceable battle cry: STRAWS SUCK.