SPOKANE, Wash. – Say goodbye to those tall, green Starbucks straws.
Starbucks announced Monday that it will be getting rid of its plastic straws in an effort to protect the environment from plastic waste.
Spokane is already a step ahead of the coffee giant in limiting plastic waste. City officials have designed a recycling process that has helped decrease the collection of plastic trash.
Marlene Feist with the City of Spokane said this process does help eliminate a lot of waste, but certain products, such as straws, can be difficult for recycling machines to catch.
“Basically (for) the small drink straws, there’s not an easy way to recycle them,” she said. “A plastic bottle for example, because there’s just a small amount of material … the plastic then ends up in your garbage stream.”
Feist said a community getting involved is the most effective way to reduce the amount of plastic the city has to try and recycle.
“Every day you can make a choice on behalf of the environment on what kinds of things that you’re buying and what kind of packaging they come in,” she said.
Starbucks said it plans to be completely free of its plastic straws by 2020 and will replace them with paper straws.