A Jersey Bean staff member at Mandurah Forum with a paper straw.
Camera IconA Jersey Bean staff member at Mandurah Forum with a paper straw. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Plastic draws the short straw at Mandurah Forum

Vanessa SchmittMandurah Coastal Times

PLASTIC straws will be removed from Mandurah Forum.

This week, food and beverage retailers began offering paper straws instead, as community expectations evolve and the demand for more environmentally friendly practices grows.

Plastic straws take up to 200 years to decompose and contribute to more than one million seabird and 100,000 marine animal deaths every year.

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Centre Manager Jacqueline McKenzie said Mandurah Forum was setting a benchmark for Australian shopping centres, and the broader community, to be more aware of the environmental impacts of what we consume.

“We all need to play our part to reduce the impact of this ongoing environmental issue,” she said.

“We’re lucky at Mandurah Forum to have proactive, forward-thinking retailers who are on board with this initiative, to help us create a plastic straw-free centre.”

The shopping centre is providing paper straws to food and beverage retailers as they work together to phase out the plastic alternative. The paper straws are sourced from sustainably-managed plantations and are 100 per cent recyclable and carbon neutral.

The latest campaign is in addition to the Centre’s plastic coat hanger recycling scheme which began last year, and has resulted in more than 790kg of plastic coat hangers going to Down Under Plastic Recycling.