Higher education has a tendency to join the left’s cause of the day no matter what it is, so this is hardly surprising.
The College Fix reports:
Universities nationwide ban plastic straws as students bolster movementEver since a video of a sea turtle with a straw up its nose went viral, more and more environmental activists have advocated banning plastic straws, and many have heeded that call, from the city of Seattle to Starbucks.College activists, meanwhile, are doing their part to make sure universities join that cause célèbre despite stats showing rivers in Africa and Asia are responsible for 93 percent of the plastic trash that ends up in the ocean.This fall, the University of Southern California will no longer offer straws in its dining halls as a direct result of a student-led petition, the Daily Trojan campus newspaper reports.The petition was launched by the student club Environmental Core, or ECore, whose members declined to comment to The College Fix on whether or not they believe this new policy will actually make an difference in the amount of plastic Americans use or the world’s oceans.Taking it a step further, Duke University this summer enacted a ban on plastic straws and other disposable plastic, including bags and forks. This new effort joins the college’s established ban on Styrofoam.In April, Knox College in Illinois also banished plastic straws from campus, replacing them with biodegradable paper straws. The effort was spearheaded by the Student Senate’s Sustainability Committee, which brought the proposal to the school’s food service provider, Bon Appetit. The student group did not immediately provide The College Fix with a statement about its efforts.
[Featured image via Wikimedia Commons]
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