I gave up on plastic straws a long time ago. I now carry a reusable metal straw in my handbag for using at occasions and restaurants, just because those poor sea animals need all the help they can get, folks.
Adding its voice and substantial national presence to the global #nostraw campaign, Tsogo Sun will no longer be serving straws at any of its over 100 hotels around the country. This is BRILL news, I think
Plastic straws, which are not bio-degradable and are generally used for less than 20 minutes, are one of the many single-use plastic items that end up in our oceans, polluting the water and harming marine life. According to Greenpeace Africa, “Up to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic enter our seas worldwide every year. The sea is choking.” Straws also end up in storm water drains, causing flooding, polluting waterways, littering the streets and ending up in our food chain.
Comments Ravi Nadasen, COO of Tsogo Sun Hotels, “Although no confirmed worldwide figure is available, we do know that America uses 500-million plastic straws daily; this is enough straws to wrap around the earth’s circumference a staggering 2.5 times a day. So when you consider that one plastic straw takes 500 years to decompose, if we continue to use straws as we do, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.”
“Straws are an item of convenience for most us, and we hope that, by not providing straws with drinks in our hotels, restaurants, casinos and entertainment destinations, our guests will be inspired to stop using straws altogether. We believe that, by changing our minds today, we can change hearts tomorrow.”
Well done Tsogo Sun, and I hope that many more hotel chains follow your example!
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