Straw Switcheroos & Strategies for More Sustainable Sipping

At Farmers Restaurant Group, we are excited to announce we have taken another step to do more good and less harm for the earth and so many of its beautiful creatures.

From now on, we’re implementing an entirely new straw program for our beverages. When you order a drink in one of our restaurants, we will be serving up two earth-friendly options. Some of our drinks will come without straws because, frankly, we realized they don’t need them. And some of our drinks will come with our new paper straws.

We have made the switch to Aardvark paper straws, which are both eco-friendly and biodegradable. Made in the U.S., Aardvark straws are BPA free, FDA approved, and decompose in just 45-60 days. That’s a whole lot of good news for the earth and everyone on it.

“Even though straws are small, they are causing massive pollution problems,” says Co-Owner Dan Simons. “In the U.S. alone, we use over 500 million plastic straws EVERY DAY. That’s a lot of trash, much of which ends up littering our waterways, oceans, and shorelines. If the straw pollution problem is news to you, do a quick online search to find work around the globe encouraging changes to our straw sipping habits. And if you haven’t seen the video of the poor sea turtle with the cocktail straw stuck in his nose, Google that too. It’s heartbreaking. In our restaurants, we are making this switch so we don’t participate in all of the hazards associated with using plastic straws, and to bring more awareness to the global straw use problem.”

Preventing straw pollution has been part of our earth-friendly practices for a long time. Prior to this week’s change, we were using compostable straws. While a much better choice than standard plastic straws, if they get thrown away as trash they act like plastic. They don’t break down like they do in the compost facility. With paper straws, they decompose wherever they end up.

Our new program has one caveat: we’re still looking for a solution for the long straws we serve with our shared drinks. These plastic straws will continue to get recycled until we can find an alternative.

Everyday, across all of our restaurants, we’re committed to reducing our use of plastics. This is why we have always served filtered water, instead of selling plastic water bottles, and why we are now serving paper straws, or no straws at all, when we think they aren’t needed. Of course, we will make our paper straws available for all of our drinks if our guests want or need them.

So, come on down for one of our tasty beverages and join us in our straw switcheroo and strategy. Let’s all work together – one straw at a time — to make the earth a little bit cleaner and safer for everyone on it.