Mission
Skip the Straw is a project of the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation to protect marine life in the Gulf of Maine by educating, encouraging and empowering our Seacoast community to avoid single-use plastics, starting with plastic straws.
Why Does It Matter?
- Eight million tons of plastic enters the ocean every year.1
- Plastic is made from unsustainable fossil fuels and every piece ever made is still in our environment and toxic to marine life.
- Plastics impact marine life through entanglement, poisoning and starvation.
- It’s difficult to recycle straws so they end up in our landfills and oceans.
- In 2016, Blue Ocean Society volunteers picked up more than 1,700 straws at their beach cleanups. Nearly half of those were on Hampton Beach.
A healthy ocean is critical for human health and well-being and working together to preserve and protect it creates stronger and healthier communities.
Take Action
- Stop using plastic straws and other single-use plastics and spread the word through your network of relationships. Take a picture and share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #SkiptheStraw.
- Volunteer with Blue Ocean Society to engage restaurant owners and staff to Skip the Straw. You’ll receive an information packet and instructions on how to approach select restaurants with all you need to make a persuasive case for them to Skip the Straw
- Are you a business? Sign our Skip the Straw Pledge and we’ll recognize your leadership on keeping our beaches clean!
- Support local business who signed the pledge! Check out a list of our participating restaurants here.
Contact Dave at dave@blueoceansociety.org; we’ll get you started and keep in touch to see how things are going.
Receive More Info on the Project and How You Can Volunteer!
Project Partners
Ocean Conservancy
Surfrider Foundation, NH Chapter
Sustainable Seacoast
Great Bay – Piscataqua Waterkeeper, Conservation Law Foundation
1. Jambeck, J.R., R. Geyer, C. Wilcox, et. al. 2015. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science 13 Feb 2015:768-771.