The final straw: why are so many Brighton pubs ditching plastic?

Earlier this week The Earth and Stars pub in Brighton announced they would no longer be providing plastic straws for their customers.

In a post made on their Facebook page, the pub said: "We're giving plastic straws the boot! We will no longer be serving drinks with plastic straws! Bye bye plastic."

Straws Suck UK, a group who raise awareness about the environmental impact of straws tweeted a congratulatory post about the pub's decision.

The Hare and Hounds on London Road switched to using biodegradable straws around four months ago. The Tempest Inn on Brighton's seafront began using metal straws as opposed to plastic ones last August.

Brighton-based campaign Plastic Free Pledge urges Brighton business to boycott the single-use of plastics, including items such as straws. They seek to inform businesses with infographics such as the one below.

They have a list of Brighton business that have pledged with them to remove plastic straws completely or to limit their usage. Pubs and bar on this list include: East Street Tap, Sidewinder, East Street Tap, Fiddler's Elbow, The Qaudrant, Hope and Ruin, The Stoneham, The Tempest Inn, Latest Music Bar and The Farm Tavern.

Brighton MP Caroline Lucas met with another Brighton-based anti-straw cause on Thursday. Straws Suck aims to get every pub and bar in the UK plastic straw free by 2020, starting with Brighton.

The ban on straws is not just a Brighton issue. The cause received nationwide attention in June when UK chain All Bar One announced they were putting measures in place to phase out straws in all of their bars.

Assistant marketing manager Kate Dell said: "At All Bar One, we are committed to reducing our impact on the environment and one of the ways we are doing this is drastically reducing our consumption of single-use plastics, like straws.”

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Why straws?

Plastic constitutes 90% of all the rubbish found floating in the world's seas.

In the last 25 years 6,263,319 straws and stirrers were picked up during annual beach clean events.

Plastic straws are consistently ranked in the Top 10 of the most collected items at beach clean-ups.

The USA alone is estimated to use 500 million straws per day

20 minutes is the average use time of a plastic straw, but the average straw can then last for 600 years or more. Many straws will find their way into oceans, especially from coastal regions such as Brighton.