In California, The Walt Disney Company is joining Starbucks, McDonald’s and Marriott to get rid of single use plastic straws and plastic straws in all their locations around the world. This move from Disney will lead to a reduction of more than 175 million straws and 13 million stirrers annually. Their announcement did not specify whether they would move to biobased paper straws, vegetable based biodegradable straws, or other alternatives.
Over the next few years Disney is also transitioning to refillable in-room amenities in their hotels and cruise ships, reducing plastics in guest rooms by 80%. They will also reduce the number of plastic shopping bags in their owned and operated parks and on their cruise line, offering guests the option to purchase reusable bags at a nominal price. Finally, they will complete their work to eliminate polystyrene cups across global owned and operated business. These steps are part of their long-term effort to reduce single-use plastics, and they will continue recycling and responsibly disposing single-use waste that cannot be eliminated.