Americans throw away half a billion straws every single day, according to the National Park Service.
It's statistics like this one that have spurred cities like Seattle to make a change, becoming one of the first to ban plastic straws and utensils beginning in June 2018.
So it wasn't too surprising when we heard the news about 470-unit Pizza Express's reaction to a letter about its use of straws sent from one of its 5-year-old customers.
According to Good News Network, little Ava's letter read: “I am writing to you to ask if you could stop using plastic straws because they are very bad for animals. They can get stuck in their mouths and noses. Could you only use straws if people ask for them because I don’t want any animals to get sick.”
Pizza Express responded by saying, “We pride ourselves on listening to our customers, so when Ava, aged five, sent us a letter asking us to stop putting plastic straws in her drink because ‘they are very bad for animals’, it spurred us to make a change. We pride ourselves on listening to our customers, so when Ava, aged five, sent us a letter asking us to stop putting plastic straws in her drink because ‘they are very bad for animals’, it spurred us to make a change."
"We are now phasing out single-use plastic straws from all of our 470+ restaurants this summer, and we'll be replacing them with biodegradable and recyclable paper versions," the statement continued.
The #stopsucking movement has been growing, with many restaurants making the switch to straws by request only and paper straws replacing plastic.
How many plastic straws does your pizzeria go through per month?