KINGSTON – Ulster County Executive Patrick Ryan signed his second bill this week, Local Law #20 of 2019, called “Skip the Straw,” which will require local restaurants to ask before providing customers with a plastic drinking straw.
“We are here today to continue delivering on a really important priority for me, and I know for the whole county, implementing a Green New Deal in Ulster County,” Ryan explained on Thursday.
“In just the United States alone, we estimate that 500 million plastic straws per day are polluting our environment,” Ryan noted, citing one study published recently concludes that 8.3 billion plastic straws are clogging worldwide beaches and waterways – comprising 0.025 percent of the 8 million tons of annual ocean plastic.
“So we are, again, at the local level here in Ulster County, leading the way by taking action. To my knowledge, this is one of the most forward-looking pieces of legislation, to take discreet action in solving this problem, rather than continuing to contribute to it,” Ryan said.
“Given the existential climate crisis we face, I am extremely proud of Ulster County, and am honored to sign this ‘Skip the Straw’ legislation today,” Ryan the new county executive said.
County Legislator Kathy Nolan said she was pleased with the measure. “It allows the restaurants and food services to do what they need to do in serving their customers, but says that they won’t give people items that they don’t actually want, and in most cases don’t need,” she said.
“This is something most of the restaurants in my district are already doing; they’ve stopped offering straws, so this legislation will just level the playing field, and make sure that everyone is taking that approach,” Nolan said.
“I think it’s a first step in terms of making our service to people have less plastic, and be more environmentally conscious, and we’ll need to take additional steps to deal with plastic stirrers and other plastic items, that can be replaced with items that are compostable, or that can be put in a landfill without harming anything,” Nolan said.
“It forces every single person to stop and think about their personal impact on our environment. I think when people are given the chance to opt out of polluting, they’re going to be excited about it,” Ryan agreed.
“We have a lot more legislation coming along these lines; we’re going to be implementing several other initiatives,” Ryan continued. The county legislature’s Energy and Environment Committee is currently reviewing other plastic products considered for environmental regulation, Nolan said.
