Plastic utensils have been the topic for many years now, with environmental activists campaigning for plastic bans, decreased usage of plastic bags, and just decrease the dependency of plastic worldwide. Making this argument infinitely more prevalent was the public awareness of the effect of plastic on various ecosystems, especially marine ecosystems.
A viral video of a Texas A&M marine biologist pulling a plastic straw from the nose of a sea turtle hit over 30 million views on YouTube and sparked public outrage.
In addition, Starbucks, the very popular Seattle-based coffee company, has been under heat for many years to become more environmentally friendly, especially because of the harmful nature of their one-time use coffee cups. So Starbucks has taken the initiative to become more eco-friendly by eliminating all plastic straws from their businesses, which should be out by 2020 according to them.
So whats the replacement? How are you going to get through the whipped cream and drink that frappuccino? Well, Starbucks looks to implement these sippy-cup looking lids for drinks to allow people to enjoy their coffee without the comfort of a straw. However, Starbucks says that eco-friendly straws will still be available upon request to meet anyone's accommodations.
