Americans use more than 170 million plastic straws every day. After one single use, those straws will take 200 years to decompose.

Many straws will end up in the ocean, where they will injure or even kill the marine life they come in contact with.

Using plastic straws has become such a habit that most restaurants hand them out with every beverage, without even asking their customers.

It’s time to stop this habit, and change the culture around single-use plastics. For the sake of sea animals, it’s time to #SuckLess.

Yelp, we the undersigned are asking you to help us with this mission: Please add a ‘straws upon request’ label to your restaurant listings.

This will encourage restaurant owners to voluntarily change their straw-dispensing habits, and it will empower your users to make an ecologically friendly choice when selecting a restaurant.

Most importantly, it will encourage people to think before reaching for a straw – which we hope will reduce the amount of harmful plastic waste that ends up in our oceans every year.

For more information on our request, please visit: https://sealawards.com/yelp-suck-less/

ABOUT SEAL AWARDS

The SEAL (Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership) Awards is an awards-driven environmental advocacy organization.

Our core beliefs maintain that our environmental progress requires true leadership, leadership deserves recognition, and recognition is a form of accountability.

The SEAL Awards organizational pillars are our:

• Business Sustainability Awards - 2018 winners included Apple, JD.com, Nike, and Patagonia
• Environmental Journalism Awards - representative past winners include journalists from Guardian, New Yorker, New York Times, and Washington Post
• Environmental Research Grants - grant program has provided funding for researchers at leading institutions like Duke, Marine Conservation Institute, MIT, and UCLA