At the initiative of the Saint Spyridon special school and the support of Larnaca Municipality an initiative is to be launched in September to rid the town of plastic straws.
School head Anastasia Savva Georgiadou told a press conference on Monday that the initiative was one of the activities of the school’s team of volunteers. They will attempt to replace plastic straws in schools. restaurants, cafeterias, hotels, even houses, with biodegradable ones.
“The aim of this initiative is to raise awareness in the local community about environmental pollution, show the volunteer work done by children with special needs so that it can inspire similar actions, encourage cooperation between organised groups and promote Larnaca as the leading city in the Republic of Cyprus to adopt best practices,” she said.
Larnaca Mayor Andreas Vyras said that with the public adapting to the new law on single use plastic bags, it was time to take the next step to protect the environment from plastic straws.
“Every day we throw out 500 million plastic straws which is enough to fill 125 school buses,” he said. A large quantity ends up in the sea and is a leading cause of pollution.
The initiative will start on September 1 and continue till the end of 2020. It will be open to participation from local companies and Larnaca associations. Participants will stop using plastic straws. The target is for a 30% reduction of use of plastic straws by participating companies and other bodies. Up till the end of 2019, the reduction must be between 31% and 60% and by the end of 2020 between 61% and 100%.
Companies can use biodegradable straws or multi-use straws of glass, metal, silicon or bamboo. The cost of participation is €50 that will be used to buy biodegradable straws.
