If you’ve been up-to-date with the news, you’ve likely heard about the movement to get rid of disposable plastic straws for good. Starbucks stores in the UK are trying to eliminate most of them, the city of Seattle is making rules against them, and now Disney wants to get rid of them, too.
It’s a topic of being more environmentally friendly, as Disney has always pushed the message of wanting to reduce its environmental footprint. This isn’t an unusual topic from Disney, as Walt himself spoke up about environmentalism.
So, what exactly are they doing about the straws? Disney has attempted to curtail the impact of plastic straws on the environment before, as frequent guests are likely aware of the paper straws used in Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park, which is intended to protect the countless animals should they happen to get ahold of one. Disney’s new movement is different this time though, as The Walt Disney Company said that by mid-2019, it intends to remove all single-use plastic straws and stirrers at all of their locations across the planet. The company estimates this reduction will exceed 175 million straws and 13 million stirrers every year.
Disney says it also intends to implement an 80 percent reduction to in-room plastics of the hotels and cruise line by replacing disposable plastic amenities with refillable ones. In the same places, Disney will offer guests reusable bags to replace the plastic ones, and will also get rid of polystyrene cups.
So, while you might be thinking that just getting rid of straws won’t have an enormous environmental impact on its own, when you consider the volume that Disney is getting rid of, along with the other steps the company is taking in order to become more environmentally friendly, it starts to make sense as part of a much bigger picture.