Edmonds Plastic Straw Ban Coming Soon

EDMONDS, WA - Coffee and cocktail lovers in Edmonds, be warned: a plan to ban plastic straws (and stir sticks and utensils) in the city is underway. The ban won't go into effect until early 2020, but city officials are already asking eateries to begin phasing out the items.

"The momentum across the nation and the globe, to ban plastic straws and other single-use plastics is growing strong. Edmonds joins this movement and will become the first city in Snohomish County to make this first step to decreasing single-use plastic use and the potential pollution these items cause," city officials said in a recent bulletin.

You might've heard that Seattle recently enacted a similar ban. The ban went into effect on July 1, with most eateries now offering sippy cup lids in place of straws. The Edmonds ban coincides with Starbucks' pledge to stop using straws chain-wide by 2020.

According to estimates, Americans use some 500 million plastic straws every day. The straws end up in landfills, but also in rivers, lakes, and oceans. A horrifying video of a sea turtle with a straw stuck up its nose has inspired many people to stop using the utensils.

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