The use of single-use plastics has become a very visible target for sustainability advocates in the U.S. and the low-hanging fruit in the war against their usage are plastic straws. In July of 2018, Seattle was the largest city to ban its use and several large companies including Starbucks and McDonald’s followed suit.
In this episode of Cause Talk Radio, Megan chats with Emma Rose, founder of FinalStraw to hear the story about why she decided to start a company that creates products to replace single-use plastic starting with a reusable, collapsible metal straw and how it all started with a mermaid beach clean-up and a Kickstarter campaign.
We talk about non-consensual plastic and making it easy for people to adopt environmentally conscious behaviors and how massive corporations paved the way for her company by banning the use of plastic straws starting in 2017.
According to Emma, waste is just a design flaw and she’s committed to making it fun and sexy to adopt reusables. We chat about what’s in store for reusable products like FinalStraw and where the company is headed in 2020 and beyond.
Links & Notes
- (00:00) – Welcome to Cause Talk Radio
- (00:58) – The battle against the straw with Emma Rose and FinalStraw
- (02:13) – Why a reusable straw company?
- (05:52) – What is a FinalStraw?
- (06:34) – The FinalStraw Kickstarter
- (11:16) – Sponsor: Audible — Support the show and get The Culture Code free
- (12:19) – Riding culture change around plastic straws
- (16:28) – Don’t stop at the straw
- (19:14) – New products in the coming year
