Seattle is the first major U.S. city to ban plastic straws and utensils citywide. Businesses that sell food or drinks are no longer allowed to offer the plastic items.
Several big cities are considering similar bans and St. Petersburg and Miami Beach have already limited the use of plastic straws.
Some Jacksonville businesses are also cutting back.
“We took all the straws off the bar. We don’t put straws in cocktails unless somebody asks for it,” Kurt Rogers said.
Rogers manages Sidecar in San Marco.
He and other bartenders at the cocktail and craft beer bar have been shaking up and pouring cocktails without straws for the past year and a half.
“You see a lot of other cities that are getting rid of plastic altogether so we kind of wanted to kick start that here,” Rogers said.
Seattle became the first major U.S. city to ban restaurants and businesses from offering plastic straws and utensils. On CBS47 at 5:55: While other cities consider similar bans, some #Jacksonville businesses are already cutting back pic.twitter.com/feujspYj4Y
— Brittney Donovan (@brittneyANjax) July 3, 2018
He said Sidecar will soon only have paper straws in stock – the same move a Jacksonville yacht club just made.
Katy Ferguson works at Epping Forest Yacht Club off San Jose Boulevard. She said the club switched to paper after noticing plastic straws were ending up in the river.
“A lot of the customers don’t really like them because they don’t hold up well but the plastic straws are also extremely damaging,” Ferguson said.
She and several other people said they’d like to see a ban on single-use plastic items in Jacksonville – especially because of the city’s proximity to the St. Johns River and Atlantic Ocean.
But not everyone liked the idea.
“I would try the paper but I would prefer plastic,” Nakita Dupree said. “I don’t just want to drink from the cup (itself) so I need a plastic straw.”
Action News Jax reached out to city council members to find out if a plastic ban is being considered in Jacksonville.
Bill Gulliford said he’s not aware of any ordinances in the works but would be interesting in exploring the issue with the council.
“It’s getting the general public to change their mindset a bit about waste and consumption,” Rogers said. “It’s a slow process.”
Several Jacksonville businesses have already cut back as other cities consider bans against straws and other one-time use plastics:
Posted by Action News Jax on Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Cox Media Group
