Going strawless

On Monday (April 23), Chico State’s Associated Students Dining Services stopped offering plastic straws on campus as part of the Strawless Campaign launched by the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy. The student-owned auxiliary organization hopes to cut back on waste while educating students and faculty about its effects on the planet.

The Chico campus alone consumes 130,000 plastic straws each academic year, according to a press release. That’s a drop in the bucket compared with the 500 million straws used each day in the United States, but according to the Ocean Conservancy, straws are among the top 10 discarded single-use plastics that wind up in our waterways.

A.S. Dining is offering alternatives to plastic—paper straws dipped in beeswax and stainless steel straw kits, which come with a cleaning brush. For more on the Strawless Campaign, go to strawlessocean.org.