Announcing: The Last Straw for Wanstead

Photo: Flickr user Tiffany Terry

Wansteadium is delighted to get behind a new campaign to persuade cafes, bars and restaurants in Wanstead to stop supplying plastic drinking straws – with the aim of becoming completely straw-free. The campaign is the idea of Wansteadium reader Karen Myers, who has already started bending the ear of some of the cafe owners. She writes:

Following harrowing scenes on Blue Planet II, there is a move afoot to make Wanstead plastic straw free. Several cafes have already been approached to see if they would consider using paper straws, or better still, no straws. Please keep the momentum growing by refusing straws and hopefully the ripples will spread.

It’s a simple way to start making a change to the amount of waste plastic being produced and disposed of.

Any cafe/bar/restaurant who wants to support the campaign, please get in touch with us via info@wansteadium.com – you will receive a hearty pat on the back on this blog.

And anyone who needs persuading that straws are a bad thing is invited to watch this video from YouTube. Warning – you may find this distressing (but it has a happy ending). Once you see this you probably won’t ever want a straw again.

19 thoughts on “Announcing: The Last Straw for Wanstead”

  2. Yay, no straws. Meanwhile, an SUV is used for the school run, even though the school is 5 minutes away.

    Straws mind you, are very good at keeping children quiet in public eateries. I doubt all straws collected by Redbridge council end up in the worlds oceans.

    1. Not all straws do but enough of a percentage to understand that removing them and highlighting the issue is a good thing.

      It’s also possible to promote sustainable travel as well as wanting straws removed. The problem though is anything designed to restrict car use is generally despised in Wanstead as there’s too many people who think they have a right to drive and park as they want… you only have to remember the furore a few months back on this very website.

    2. Andrew James Dillon – 1) Not the point, and 2) Not true. In any case, even though kids love straws, it doesn’t mean they have to be plastic. Nevertheless we’d be delighted to have your support.

    4. The point is that hundreds of millions of straws are being used for moments and then thrown away… but where is ‘away’? They end up either being incinerated, in landfill sites where they take hundreds of years to decompose or worse still, littering our beaches and oceans. It’s a small step but surely if we all do one thing, it has to be better than nothing.

      My children totally support the idea too as they really care about their environment and the well-being of all life on Earth.

  4. Happy to hear this. Both of my children understand the impact on the environment and happy to go without a straw. I also hate the straw in a tall glass where the child forgets to hold the cup/glass and tips the whole thing over 😉

  8. I completely understand this campaign but as a person who works with adults with learning disabilities who have the need to use straws to be able to drink independently. Some of my clients carry lots of specialised equipment which makes them feel they are different from their peers. Taking this away from them I feel is unfair. Is it not possible that we look at how they are disposed of rather than completely eradicate?

  11. Great idea. Those of us old enough can be nostalgic about reinforced paper straws which, ok, used to get a bit soggy after 20 minutes but basically did do the job. I know it’s not as user-friendly as plastic straws when it comes to children, but do we really want children consuming plastic fish?

  12. Great campaign! And let’s promote reusable cups as well! And yes, I am a parent but I can carry their beakers/reusable straws with me. Let’s all be a little less lazy and do our bit.
    BTW people’s comments about straws in Wanstead not ending in the Ocean are idiotic. I hope they are joking….

Comments are closed.