Since the 1950’s, plastic has become a heavily used material in the world; from fashion, homeware, packaging, we continue to rely on plastic for a cheap a durable products. However, society has accumulated 8.3 billion tons of it and a scientific study in 2017 revealed only 9% has been recycled and 12% was destroyed. This means 79% remain in landfill and in our precious natural environment.
Since plastic can not be broken down, it has the potential to cause irreparable damage to the planet and harm to life. Many of the effects are evident: disturbance in the food chain, water pollution, air pollution, land pollution, and countless animals and plants harmed or killed due to the unnatural toxicity. In response, restaurants around the world have started to ban unnecessary plastic use,mainly tackling plastic straws and bags.
Earlier this year, a bill was proposed in California, USA to ban plastic straws. Currently, single-use plastic bags are banned throughout the state, and if this bill (Assembly Bill 1844) passes, it could greatly decrease the amount of plastic produced and consumed in the state.
We at Blu Jam Cafe strongly believe in helping and enriching the lives of our community and the environment. As Californian restaurant, we want to follow our food community at home by also adapting these regulations in our Tokyo establishment and help serve a better environment in the future.
Currently, we use paper take out boxes, cups and bags. We reuse and recycle our paper and menus to get the most out of our supplies. To continue environment-friendly change, we’ve also decided to remove 90% of our plastic straws and will implement the use of custom-made metal straws, which will be used available for use with our inhouse-made smoothies.
Metal straws have become a popular alternative to plastic in recent years. Besides their elegant appearance, they are also more durable than plastic and paper, reusable, easy to clean and 100% safe to use. Plastic straws sometimes contain BPA (a harmful chemical known to increase health risks such as reproductive disorders and diabetes) while metal straws do not. An added bonus is also they retain temperature so cold drinks stay cold and hot drinks stay… well… hot! We are super excited for our shipment to come so we can fulfill our 100% plastic straw-free advocacy!
With this step we hope to encourage others around us to make the change as well and help out our environment. This is just the beginning. And as a business, we pledge to become more environmentally-friendly and help out in anyway we can in the future.