I Really Don’t Miss Straws

It’s National Skip the Straw Day, a perfect time to reflect on efforts around the world to protect our environment and reduce plastic waste.

I’m gratified more towns, countries and companies like ours are pledging to say goodbye to the single use plastic drinking straw, even as some skeptics contend the phase outs won’t save a planet already littered with plastic waste.

It’s true that eliminating straws is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to plastic waste. But it’s a step in the right direction. It’s been about six months since we completed our plan to remove disposable plastic straws and plastic stirrers from our more than 7,300 properties across 30 brands around the world. We were among the first large U.S. companies to do so. We estimate this move will prevent more than 1 billion plastic straws per year and about a quarter billion stirrers from ending up in landfills. A single plastic straw – which might be used for about 15 minutes – will never fully disintegrate.

Many people may not realize it, but we operate more than 10,000 restaurants around the world and more than one million guests stay with us every night. The response to our plastic straw phase out has been overwhelmingly positive. Many of our guests and associates genuinely appreciate our environmental stewardship and are more than happy to skip the straw.

The JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in Florida, for example, was once one of our highest consumers of plastic straws, churning through an average of 65,000 straws each month to accommodate thousands of vacationers as well as meetings and events in its 13 restaurants and event rooms. The property is a sanctuary nesting ground for the loggerhead sea turtle. Our guests and associates were delighted to do their part to preserve the beautiful tropical  grounds.

Some people need straws to drink. We understand that, and we offer alternative straws on request. We’ve also invested in an innovative start-up company called Loliware which produces edible, seaweed straws that are marine degradable. While we’re only in the testing phase now, the product has potential.

As I’ve said in previous posts, skipping the straw is only one part of a larger sustainability and social impact plan we have in place, called Serve 360: Doing Good in Every Direction, which, among other goals, aims to shrink our landfill waste by 45 percent by 2025.

Last year, we expanded a 2018 initiative to replace small, single-use toiletry bottles of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel in our guestroom showers with larger pump-topped bottles. By the end of this year, our properties around the world will have made that switch. When fully implemented across the globe, our expanded toiletry program is expected to prevent about 500 million tiny bottles from going into landfills annually. That’s about 1.7 million pounds of plastic, a 30 percent annual reduction from current amenity plastic usage.

Step by step, we’re making a difference. As we celebrate Skip the Straw Day, we hope you’ll join us and try a drink without a sipper. If you’re like me, you’ll find you really don’t miss straws at all.