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Dear Friends of Long Beach Island,
Can you help us reach out to ask residents to refuse plastic straws?
The Garden Club of Long Beach Island would like your help. The Environmental Committee is
asking you to include our request to Skip the Straw in your next newsletter and your social
media communications. Although Bill S864 (the NJ Ban on single use plastic/paper carryout
bags, polystyrene foam food service products, and single-use straws) became effective on
11/04/2020, some restaurants and food service establishments are continuing to routinely
provide plastic straws to their customers.
The bill does require straws be available on request as they may be medically necessary for
people with a disability or medical condition. There are environmentally friendly alternatives to
plastic straws such as paper, metal, or straws manufactured from plant material if needed, or
if one prefers to use a straw. The most straightforward approach is to simply Skip the Straw.
When we were advocating the passage of the Single Use Plastic Ban bill in 2020, we asked for
your support in legislation eliminating straws and now we are asking you to reach out to your
residents to support the legislation and to Skip the Straw.
The need to reduce plastic pollution is critical and the reasons to address plastic straw pollution
Remain including the following:
• Straws are small in weight and size, and their impact on the marine environment can
escape notice, but they are not tiny by count.
• A figure of 8.3 billion straws was given as polluting the world's beaches.
• We use 500 million daily - enough to circle the world two-and-a-half times and fill
Yankee Stadium nine times a day.
• An estimated 222,432,000 straws annually could be eliminated on Long Beach Island
according to our 2020 calculations, when we asked for your support of legislation
eliminating straws.
• It takes up to 200 years for a straw to decompose and like other plastics, straws break down
into micro plastics which are ingested by all sea life and ultimately enter our food chain.
Let's all Skip the Straw!
Thank you for your consideration of our request!
Sincerely,
Garden Club of Long Beach Island
Environmental Committee