Brescia University College in London is the latest institution to get on the anti-plastic straw train.
An announcement from the school on Wednesday says when students return in September, they will come to a campus that is free of plastic straws. It's expected the move will eliminate the use of more than 25,000 plastic straws each year.
"Since our founding in 1919, the Ursuline Sisters prioritized the preservation and conservation of our natural world,” said Tim D’Souza, manager of Food Services at Brescia in a news release issued Wednesday. "Almost 100 years later, we are proud to build upon their mission and to work towards a more sustainable future for our students and our community."
Efforts to phase out the use of plastic straws began at Brescia in June, when students and others were offered the option of using biodegradable paper straws. The papers straws are said to last three hours in a cold drink and will break down in the environment within four months. They will become standard on campus this fall.
The University has also worked to reduce the use of single-use food containers. The Brescia Eco-container Exchange (B.E.E.) Take-out Container Program was launched in January. It encourages members of the Brescia community to buy eco-friendly food containers, which can be "returned, cleaned and reused through Brescia Food Services."
Campaigns to eliminate the use of plastic straws have spread across the globe as environmentalists warn of the ongoing threat of plastic waste ending up in oceans, lakes, and rivers. But the campaigns are not without their critics. Accessibility advocates have warned that plastic straw bans can be difficult for people with disabilities.
D'Souza says that will be taken into account at Brescia.
"As a socially-engaged community, we recognize that although eliminating plastic straws is an important step, it is still only one small piece of a larger issue, and that for some students paper straws may not be an option due to specific circumstances so we will make exceptions where needed," he says. “We do, however, look forward to continuing to engage in these vital discussions around sustainability and finding new and innovative ways to contribute to these types of tangible initiatives.”
