In California, popular music festival Coachella has phased out plastic straws for a biodegradable, paper alternative.
Goldenvoice, the organizer of the heavily Instagramed and Beyonce-headlined event, said the initiative was meant to coincide with Earth Day on April 22. The straw-free mandate will also be in effect at Goldenvoice’s Stagecoach: California’s Country Music Festival taking place April 27-29, 2018, in Indio, CA.
“Plastic pollution is a huge problem around the world, and it’s exciting to pioneer change by phasing out the use of single-use plastics from our festivals,” says Mapi Moran, Director of Festival Marketing for Goldenvoice. “Our new straw policy is estimated to eliminate about 300,000 plastic straws from Coachella and Stagecoach. We look forward to announcing similar initiatives later that go beyond just plastic straws.”
According to Lonely Whale nearly 500 million plastic straws are used and tossed each day in the United States, amounting to approximately 12 million pounds of plastic waste each year.