For A Strawless Ocean is the campaign that helped launch the global conversation about single-use plastic straws. Created by the Lonely Whale Foundation in 2017, it grew into one of the most-recognized ocean-conservation campaigns of the late 2010s.
The origin
The campaign launched with the #StopSucking social media challenge — a celebrity-driven, peer-to-peer mechanic that invited individuals to publicly commit to refusing plastic straws and challenge three others to do the same. Within months it had been signed onto by Adrian Grenier, Sylvia Earle, Ellen Pompeo, Amanda Seyfried, and dozens of other public figures, generating hundreds of millions of social impressions.
The campaign's defining real-world moment was Strawless In Seattle — a citywide, 30-day pilot in September 2017 that brought together the Seahawks, the Mariners, Sea-Tac Airport, the Seattle Aquarium, and dozens of restaurants. The result: 2.3 million single-use plastic straws permanently removed from one city in 30 days, paving the way for Seattle's July 2018 plastic-straw ordinance — making Seattle the largest U.S. city to ban the straw at the time.
What's on this site
This site documents and extends the campaign's educational mission with three primary resource clusters:
- Why It Matters — the science of ocean plastic and the case for refusing single-use straws.
- Alternatives — marine-friendly alternatives to single-use plastic straws, with detailed comparison guides.
- Take Action — practical steps for individuals, institutions, schools, and travelers.
You'll also find historical case studies (Strawless In Seattle, the #StopSucking challenge), partner profiles (5 Gyres, Sailors for the Sea, Defend Our Future, Aardvark Paper Straws), and the Strawless Ocean toolkit for organizers running their own campaigns.
The disability-community commitment
Throughout the campaign and on every page of this site, we maintain Lonely Whale's commitment to the disability community: some people require a flexible, single-use plastic straw to drink safely, and any plastic-reduction effort must keep these straws available for people who need them. Read our full position.
Press inquiries
For press inquiries, contact press@strawlessocean.org.
Contributing
For A Strawless Ocean is open-source. The visual identity, toolkit, and pledge text are all available for anyone running a plastic-reduction campaign to use, translate, and remix. Read the toolkit page for usage guidelines.