Marriott hotels to stop using plastic straws by 2019

Add Marriott International to the growing list of companies vowing to ditch plastic straws and drink stirrers.

The Bethseda, Maryland-based hotel chain announced Wednesday that it plans to remove about 1 billion straws and 250 million stirrers from its 6,500 hotels and resorts worldwide by 2019.

The company said it will take a year to use up the remaining supplies of straws and stirrers while it looks for other substitutes. Some Marriott hotels including those in Costa Rica, Hawaii and Australia have already begun the process.

The JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in Florida was consuming 65,000 straws each month before it stopped using them in March, said Amanda Cox, the resort’s director of sales and marketing.

Marriott joins other national and Florida companies looking to stop using straws and citing environmental reasons. Last week, Starbucks and American Airlines also revealed plans to stop using plastic straws. Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corp. announced they plan to eliminate plastic straws by the end of this year.

Last month, SeaWorld and Royal Caribbean announced that they will reduce their use of plastic straws and plastic bags. Instead, the companies said they will swap the straws with paper ones and biodegradable bags.

And some South Florida municipalities have also cracked down on plastic consumption. Last year, Pompano Beach required that its city vendors and food providers at city events stop using takeout food in plastic foam clam shells. Additionally, on Sept. 1, 2017, Palm Beach County implemented a balloon ban at all oceanfront parks in the county.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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