Hello Planetkindness! Today is the official start of No Straw November and I thought that I'd share a victory in the fight to end single-use plastic stir sticks and straws. I reached out to Dignity Health to help educate them on the harmful affects of single-use plastic straws after watching their commercial featuring a small child celebrating their birthday by blowing out their candle with a single-use plastic straw. As a result of my letter, the Dignity Health team has been meeting and evaluating what can be done to help reduce plastic straw usage. I'm happy to report that in November, Dignity Health will eliminate all the plastic stirrers across their system, replacing them with wood ones - yes!
And, plans are now underway to eliminate the majority of straws (plastic or otherwise) within all of their cafeterias. This accounts for more than 50% of all straws currently used across Dignity Health.
In addition to this new victory, President/CEO Lloyd Dean also shared the following information: "Reducing waste and recycling has been a major priority for Dignity Health for several years. We have been working internally and externally with partners such as the Plastic Pollution Coalition and Blue Renew on a few initiatives. If you’ve ever been one of our hospitals, you may have seen blue plastic wrap around some of the medical instruments and equipment that are used in the operating room. In 2014, Dignity Health began recycling that plastic so that it is no longer discarded into landfills, but rather turned into plastic cans and totes that Dignity Health now has the opportunity to buy back for their hospitals. Several years ago, Dignity Healthy switched to a new type of IV drip bag that uses more environmentally friendly materials. All this to say, Jr Ocean Guardians' No Straw November awareness campaign around the impact of plastic straws on the environment and ocean is one that Dignity Health was ready and eager to engage in."
For those of you that are not familiar with Dignity Health, their tagline is Hello Humankindness, but now they can add Hello Planetkindness too!
Thank you Dignity Health for taking action, you are an inspiration. Hopefully, this will inspire other health care facilities to follow your lead. #NOSTRAWNOVEMBER
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