The drive to eliminate (or diminish) plastic straws in Westport — reported yesterday on “06880” — is a multi-pronged battle.
RTM member Andrew Colabella — the youngest elected official, and a member of the body’s Environment Committee — brought up the idea and started researching it then.
He has met with over 16 managers, owners, chefs and staffs of Westport’s many restaurants.
His goal is “to change the material of a product that we use for a couple of minutes at convenience” — which then sits in a landfill for hundreds of years.
Colabella is taking aim too at styrofoam containers and cups, even plastic foodware.
He has gotten signatures on a petition, and has drafted an ordinance. He’s contacted the Westport Weston Health District and Conservation Commission about enforcement, and is using their feedback for a final edit.
As of now, these restaurants have joined the campaign:
- Terrain
- Amis
- Spotted Horse
- The Granola Bar
- Westport Farmers’ Market
- Joey’s By The Shore
- Little Barn
- Saugatuck Sweets
- Viva Zapata’s
- Match Burger Lobster
- Rizzuto’s
- Sakura
- The Pearl at Longshore
- Westport Pizzeria
- Bartaco
- Winfield Street Coffee & Deli
Meanwhile, Staples High School students — and even younger ones, like Bedford Middle Schooler Michael Rossi Pontoriero — have worked to eliminate plastic straws, and plastic wrapping on individual utensils in Westport schools. Details will be finalized this fall.
It takes a village — to rid a village of plastic.