Friday 22nd March 2019 – In conjunction with World Water Day, comedian and activist Daniel Franzese champion for Unicode to remove straws from their emojis.
The cease and de-sip letter, penned from the viewpoint of a sea turtle, Sydney, follows #TheFutureDoesntSuck campaign from Bacardi, the world’s largest privately-owned spirits company, and Lonely Whale, the innovative oceans nonprofit. The partnership pledges to remove one billion plastic straws from circulation by 2020.
According to WWF’s global plastic report, on average, we each use 53 kilograms of plastic a year and generate a collective total of more than 300 million tonnes of plastic waste. By 2030, this is predicted to double. Of the plastic we consume, about 40 per cent are single-use — things like cutlery, plates, food containers, electronics packaging.
Bacardi and Lonely Whale were eager to help Sydney shed light on the threat of plastic straw pollution, showing how one man’s straw is another turtle’s backyard trash. “I was honoured when Sydney first floated her anti-emoji straw campaign by me, mainly because I shared the same salty feelings about single-use plastic straws,” said Daniel Franzese. “I challenge not only Unicode, but everyone to join and pledge so we can ensure a bright future for Sydney and all her marine life friends.”
Daniel Franzese helped highlight the very real consequences our consumption has on the environment by asking people to pledge to “#StopSucking” and “go plastic strawless.” in August 2016. In the same year, Bacardi led the drinks industry with the first #NoStraws campaign focusing on eliminating single-use plastic straws from its cocktails. In 2017, Lonely Whale amplified this early leadership, creating one of the most celebrated global movements around the single-use plastic straw with our Strawless Ocean initiative to remove 500 million plastic straws from the U.S. waste stream.
“Marine life is badly affected by plastic waste in our waterways, and refusing disposable plastics, such as the single use plastic straw, is a simple way that each of us can take action,” said Jacob Briars, global advocacy director for Bacardi. “One of the world’s most popular cocktails is now the ‘tropical cocktail emoji’ with millions ‘served’ every year. Yet every one of those comes with a straw. To draw attention to the use of straws in a lighthearted way, we hope we can get our digital symbols to reflect the work Bacardi, as well as hundreds of bars, and thousands of cocktail drinkers, are doing to reject single use plastic straws in real life (the drinks are better too IRL).”
Together they aim to raise awareness of the cause further by encouraging Unicode to remove their plastic straws from emojis. To join this global campaign, visit www.thefuturedoesntsuck.org . There, individuals can declare their pledge to ensuring #thefuturedoesntsuck by committing to go plastic-straw free and recruit restaurants, hotels, bars and other venues to do the same. Establishments can register their commitment and challenge others to take the pledge so that together we can all ensure #thefuturedoesntsuck.