The Town of LaSalle is eliminating plastic straws at the Vollmer Complex.
Council this week approved a motion to eliminate the use of most plastic straws and stir sticks at the community centre.
Councillor Crystal Meloche made the suggestion, since plastic straws are often not recycled and wind up as trash in landfills and oceans.
Meloche tells CTV News the town is now using paper straws and wooden stir sticks, without much of a price difference.
“We do still have the plastic ones here for people with disabilities and seniors who still need them,” says Meloche. “We are now going to work on a policy to start looking at other one time use plastics we can get rid of in the municipality."
Some cities have already banned plastic straws. Starbucks and other food companies have also recently announced they will phase out plastic straws and polystyrene foam cups from their stores by 2020.
The municipalities of Windsor, Leamington, Lakeshore and Tecumseh are also considering the new policies.
Hotels are making similar moves. Hyatt Hotels Corp. said this week it will eliminate plastic straws and drink stirs from all its properties by Sept. 1. Hyatt said it will provide straws by request only, and will use environmentally friendly alternatives where they're available.
Hilton Hotels also said it will remove straws from the 650 properties it manages by the end of 2018. Hilton estimates that move will eliminate more than 35 million straws each year.
