Institutional Action

The Movement: Institutions

A playbook for restaurants, venues, stadiums, and hospitality groups committed to going plastic-straw free.

For institutional partners — restaurants, bars, sports stadiums, airports, museums, schools, and corporate cafeterias — Strawless Ocean offers a structured path to transition away from single-use plastic straws while maintaining accessibility for guests with disabilities.

The four-step institutional transition

  1. Audit your current usage. Count how many plastic straws your venue serves in a typical week. The answer is usually 5–10x what staff initially estimate.
  2. Switch to "by request only". The single highest-impact change: stop serving straws automatically. Reduces consumption by 50–80% with zero supply-chain change.
  3. Source marine-degradable or reusable replacements. See our alternatives guide for vetted suppliers. Paper, hay, sugarcane, and bagasse work for most service contexts.
  4. Keep flexible plastic straws on hand for guests who need them. This is non-negotiable — many disabled guests require a flexible plastic straw to drink safely. Read why this matters.

What Strawless In Seattle achieved

In September 2017, leading Seattle institutions — including the Seahawks, Mariners, Sea-Tac Airport, Seattle Aquarium, and dozens of restaurants — committed to the four-step transition. The result: 2.3 million single-use plastic straws permanently removed from the city in 30 days. Read the full Strawless In Seattle case study.

Submit your venue

Has your restaurant, café, or venue switched? Tell us and we'll add you to our partner directory.

Submit Your Venue

** A note from Lonely Whale on inclusivity: Lonely Whale's movement For A #StrawlessOcean recognizes and strongly advocates for the needs of our allies in the disability community who require a straw to drink. We are committed to working with our allies in the disability community, politics, and business to ensure that legislation is inclusive, to identify plastic straw alternatives that work for everyone, and to make these alternatives readily available at any establishment, city, or country that has banned the single-use plastic straw.