No more straws. A campaign to eliminate them from bars and public spaces has begun in Terni.

CAMPAIGN TO BAN PLASTIC STRAWS

It starts in Terni . But we hope it's the beginning of a concrete campaign, throughout Italy, against plastic , with a goal within everyone's reach: eliminating straws . Those horrible, wasteful straws so casually handed out to us at bars, and often ending up on beaches or in public parks.

ALSO READ: Plastic straws for drinks: let's eliminate them. Like many bars around the world have done (photo)

THE LAST STRAW CAMPAIGN

It all started with the campaign "The Last Straw ," launched by the Evening Standard newspaper and picked up in Italy by the online newspaper, with the related association Terni in azione. All bars, nightclubs, and canteens can join the fight with a simple commitment: abolish the plastic straws that accompany their drinks offered to customers. And replace them with paper , metal , or cornstarch straws . All of which are biodegradable . From London, three emigrants from Terni, Christian Armadori, Eleonora Angelulli, and Antonio Metastasio, recommended "The Last Straw" to their friends in the Umbrian city, who decided to join. Currently, more than twenty bars and public places form the "Basta Cannucce" network , with their logo borrowed from the English format.

The choice of Terni is very important. First of all, we're talking about a city that symbolizes industrial Italy, with its large steelworks, where civic and citizenship values ​​have always been very strong. Furthermore, Terni is a city inhabited by many young people who attend the University of Perugia, making it an ideal location to launch such a campaign. Finally, I hope that, as I said at the beginning, this is just a starting point.

TO KNOW MORE: Plastic-free straws made from algae. A patent from two American designers (photo)

CONSUMPTION OF PLASTIC STRAWS IN ITALY

The compulsive overuse of straws in Italy is truly scandalous. We've reached the point of consuming two billion of them a year , equivalent to the consumption in London , where, as in the rest of the Anglo-Saxon world, straws are widely used for ice. Absurd. Just as absurd is the fact that useless straws are the fifth largest source of waste polluting Italian beaches.

REDUCE PLASTIC: HOW TO DO IT WITHOUT

• Plastic bottles: the list of countries where you'll be paid for returning them grows.
• Ocean pollution: Slat launches its platforms to eliminate plastic. The Ocean Cleanup project (photos and video)
• Salad and vegetables, but why do we keep buying them in plastic bags? We pay more, and we don't save time.
• Bottles made from red algae (photo), durable and non-polluting. A far cry from plastic.
• Plastic in the water, too, a terrible discovery. There's only one solution: reduce its use. And it's not difficult.