By Elise Lasky

In honor of the culmination of #NoPlasticNovember, I am highlighting Lonely Whale, an organization that has been contributing to the movement against single use plastics since 2017. Lonely Whale not only created the local Strawless in Seattle campaign but has also created and continues to create change on a national and global scale.

Each minute a garbage truck worth of plastic is dumped into the oceans, adding up to 8-12 million metric tons of plastic each year. In 2016, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reported that there would be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050 if we do not make a change. Inspired by courageous ideas and driven to make impactful change, Lonely Whale works to address plastic pollution. Lonely Whale is dedicated to scalable solutions, education, and the use of impact campaigns to address this issue. You may have heard of one of their most well-known campaigns against single use plastic straws, #StopSucking, on which Currents focused in 2017. Throughout this campaign, Lonely Whale has engaged national and local celebrities to take part in admitting that they “suck.” In a video created for the campaign, co-founder and advisory board member Adrian Grenier states, “Statistically speaking, most of us suck. Most of us suck every day.” The video continues by asking that we all make a commitment to #StopSucking, to stop using single-use plastic straws if we do not need one to drink. According to the #StopSucking campaign website, a total of 9,328 challenges to stop sucking have been accepted.

The #StopSucking campaign directly supported the launch of a local Seattle campaign Strawless in Seattle. Lonely Whale refers to this campaign as a “citywide takeover,” encouraging businesses and cultural icons to commit to using marine degradable alternatives to single use plastic straws. One local celebrity that participated in the campaign is Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who posed as the local champion of the campaign in order to encourage Seattleites to move away from using single use plastic straws. At the launch of the campaign, the city of Seattle announced a ban on single-use plastic straws and cutlery that went into effect this past July. Members of SMEA participated in the push towards reducing the use of single use plastic straws by creating a “No Straw November” competition last year.

This campaign had two major strengths: clearly explaining why they chose to focus on plastic straws and choosing to pay attention to accessibility. Lonely Whale makes it clear that plastic straws are not the only single-use plastic item that ends up in the ocean, but they picked straws because they were a gateway into the much larger plastic pollution crisis. Lonely Whale also takes time to note that they are not anti-straw: rather, they are pro-single-use plastic straw alternatives, acknowledging that there are communities that rely on straws to drink. Not addressing communities that need straws in the strawless movement has resulted in backlash. Lonely Whale addresses this by providing information on straw alternatives, discounts on the alternatives, and promotes the possibility of keeping some standard plastic straws on hand for patrons that cannot drink without them.

This is just a small fraction of the initiatives on which Lonely Whale is currently working on. If their work has inspired you, they have also created “For a Strawless Ocean,” which is an open source resource and brand that can be used to start your own campaign that aligns with the mission of “For a Strawless Ocean.” You can also align a current campaign or initiative with the brand. You can download the toolkit on their “For a Strawless Ocean” campaign website.

Just like Lonely Whale, we at SMEA believe that a major issue facing our planet is the volume of plastic that is entering the ocean on a daily basis. That is why we, SMEA students, have participated in #NoPlasticNovember. As we continue to challenge ourselves and our readers to assess the way we use plastics, we also encourage you to look to organizations like Lonely Whale for innovative ways to both discuss and address the issue of ocean plastics. Just like Lonely Whale, SMEA students started last year by pledging to not use single-use plastic straws, to stop sucking, and this year it is time to make even bigger changes in our plastic consumption. Lonely Whale is moving forward with reducing plastic pollution in the ocean through their Next-Wave Plastics initiative, which intercepts ocean bound plastics from the waterways and returns them to the supply chain to be used in products and packaging. Dell is a leader in this movement, and many other large companies are joining in.

Now that we’re almost done with November, take a moment to reflect: Have you managed to produce a little less plastic waste than you normally do? Was that change something you can continue into the future? What’s your next step to decrease your plastic use? Let us know as we reflect on #NoPlasticNovember on social media!