Durban - Adding its voice and substantial national presence to the global #nostraw campaign, Tsogo Sun will no longer be serving straws at any of its over 100 hotels, the hotel franchise announced this week.
"Plastic straws, which are not bio-degradable and are generally used for less than 20 minutes, are one of the many single-use plastic items that end up in our oceans, polluting the water and harming marine life," said Chief Operating Officer of Tsogo Sun, Ravi Nadasen.
"According to Greenpeace Africa up to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic enter our seas worldwide every year. The sea is choking," he added.
Straws also end up in stormwater drains, causing flooding, polluting waterways, littering the streets and ending up in our food chain.
Nadasen said “Although no confirmed worldwide figure is available, we do know that America uses 500-million plastic straws daily; this is enough straws to wrap around the earth’s circumference a staggering 2.5 times a day.
"So when you consider that one plastic straw takes 500 years to decompose, if we continue to use straws as we do, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.”
“Straws are an item of convenience for most us, and we hope that, by not providing straws with drinks in our hotels, restaurants, casinos and entertainment destinations, our guests will be inspired to stop using straws altogether. We believe that, by changing our minds today, we can change hearts tomorrow.”