Lynn Hungaski with Newtown Environmental Action Team (NEAT) has been busy sending a message: Skip the Straw. By contacting bar and restaurant owners and asking if she can place cards with the message on tables, she is doing her part locally in what is a much larger movement to reduce plastic trash.

Skip the Straw is part of a national effort to reduce plastic in our environment, reads a small sign now sitting on tables at Eggs & Co at 71 South Main Street. Diners who see the card can further read, “If you don’t need to drink using a straw, simply say ‘no thanks’ to straws. It is a small step that goes a long way to environmental health.”

Ms Hungarski has talked to most restaurants in Newtown, she said.

“If they agree, then we are putting the cards out. Some restaurants are using paper straws, which biodegrade. Most restaurants are giving out plastic straws,” she said.

She said the owners of Eggs & Co were the first ones to say yes and the first to get cards on their tables.

NEAT had cards and holders printed and ordered “and my daughter and I set up 750 cards and holders and will give about 500 to restaurants that said yes,” Ms Hungaski said. She will save remaining cards for new restaurants.

Restaurant and bar owners can call Ms Hungaski at 203-858-4882. Find NEAT online at byonewtown.org.

Learn more about the national movement at skipthestraw.com.