Harvey’s uses tens of millions of straws every year. These single-use bits of plastic are the sixth most discarded piece of garbage in the world. It’s no wonder most of them end up in the ocean where they can get wedged up the noses of sea turtles or ingested by a sea bird.
Harvey’s is the second biggest Canadian fast food chain and its parent company, Cara, owns 18 other major restaurant chains across the country. Now one of their main competitors, A&W, just committed to eliminating plastic straws in all its stores by January 2019. Now is the perfect opportunity to pressure Harvey’s, and its parent company Cara, to not fall behind and stop using plastic straws.
A huge outcry could be show these this fast food giant that its customers are willing to get a burger elsewhere if its doesn’t step up like A&W stop using plastic straws. We need Cara to step up and ensure all its restaurant chains stop poisoning our oceans with straw pollution.
Tell Cara to step up and stop using plastic straws.
Around 8 million tons of plastic enter our oceans every year -- enough that, by 2050, there would be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Not only that, but the plastic doesn’t degrade. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces that end up in the stomachs of birds, fish and sea mammals, eventually killing them as their stomachs fill with plastic instead of food.
Getting rid of straws would make a major dent in cleaning up our ocean and help save wildlife from the plague of plastic.
SumOfUs has been working to tackle the plastics crisis. Over 105,000 members like you signed a petition calling on the federal government to support a motion that would take on plastics in a real way. Two weeks ago, we hand delivered it to the Minister of Environment’s office and held the government to account on national television. We know that, when we work together, we can take on fast food giants like Harvey’s and protect our oceans.
Cara: step up and stop using plastic straws in all your restaurant chains today.
More information
A&W Canada to eliminate plastic straws from all restaurants
CBC. 8 June 2018.
CBC. 8 June 2018.
Canadian restaurateurs and consumers say "straws suck"
Metro. 11 July 2017.
Metro. 11 July 2017.