At Stream2Sea, we are passionate about making our everyday choices as ecoconscious as possible. Tinted sunscreen that eliminates the need for makeup foundation? We’ve got you. Leave-in conditioner to support your locks through adventures or an early morning? We make that, too. And for the sake of the oceans and planet we love, we hope that you’re not stopping at body care products when you’re making choices to protect the planet. We’ve teamed up with Final Straw to help you on your journey to a fully ecoconscious lifestyle!
The Problem
Like single-use plastic bags, single-use plastic straws are often difficult or impossible to recycle. Additionally, they take up to 200 years to decompose, and are not biodegradable, meaning that the smaller pieces of plastic remain in the oceans or other environments where they have decomposed, presenting harm to wildlife in the form of microplastics and toxins that are released during the process.
Single-use plastic straws are a commonly littered item—they are the 11th most commonly found form of ocean trash—so the risks they pose to ocean life also include choking and suffocation. These risks and other concerns have led to plastic straw bans in some municipalities, and have been the basis for a conversation about alternatives to products that have the potential to harm the environment in this way. Some businesses, such as those on Surfrider Foundation’s Ocean-Friendly Restaurant program or Reef Relief’s Florida Keys list, have decided to “Say No To Plastic Straws.”
While some situations may call for the use of plastic straws, it is clearly important to take steps to reduce this kind of single-use plastic waste whenever possible.
Final Straw
There are some easy steps to take to reduce your use of single-use plastic straws. The first, of course, is to eliminate straws from your routine altogether, which is a great option if it fits your lifestyle. If not, there are great new reusable straw options. Our favorite is the Final Straw!
If you haven’t heard of them, Final Straw is a reusable straw company making it easy to, as they suggest, #SuckResponsibly. Their reusable, collapsible, keychain-carried straws are an alternative to single-use plastic straws, and are innovative in their design, making it easy to transport and clean the straw on-the-go.
If you’ve ever left your reusable grocery bags at home, or forgotten to clean your reusable coffee mug, you know it can be easy to fall short of your everyday ecoconscious goals due to concerns about the convenience. Final Straw makes it even easier to make an ecoconscious choice—you’re not likely to forget your keys when you leave for your coffee run, and even if you didn’t remember to clean your straw, the cleaning tools you need fold into the same keychain as the straw, so you can wash it on-the-go!
We know it can be intimidating to try out a new product, even if you know it is a step towards ecoconscious habits, so throughout the month of May 2019, we’re offering a FREE Final Straw to anyone who makes a purchase valued at $150 or more on our website!
Stream2Sea
Since we don’t carry reusable straws, we’ve teamed up with a company that does. What we do carry, though, are products that do not harm you or the reefs, and which are another important part of a truly ecoconscious lifestyle. Our packaging is sustainable, and we are passionate about donating a percentage of our sales to ecofriendly nonprofit partners who are working to protect the ecosystems we love. Thank you for joining us in the journey to #ProtectWhatWeLove!
We would like to hear all the ways you have found to make your everyday routines ecoconscious! Please send us a message on our Facebook page for a chance to have your ecoconscious tips featured on our channels!
Take the Safe Sunscreen Pledge!
Take the Safe Sunscreen Pledge and we’ll send you a digital 20-page resource that dives into ingredients to know, ingredients to avoid, what “organic” and “biodegradable” really mean, and what is truly “reef-safe.”
Thank you for being part of a global movement to protect marine and other ecosystems from unsafe ingredients! What we put on our bodies DOES make a difference, and your positive choices help protect the planet!
