Audubon Aquarium In New Orleans Eliminates Plastic Bags, Straws

NEW ORLEANS, LA — In an effort to play a part in helping reduce plastic pollution dumped into the world’s oceans, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans will phase out plastic products, including plastic straws and bags. The Aquarium Conservation Partnership launched the “In Our Hands” initiative Monday through 19 aquariums in the country, including Audubon.

Starting yesterday (July 10), single-use plastic bags and straws are now unavailable at Audubon, according to Rich Toth, who’s vice president and managing director of the Audubon Nature Institute’s attractions downtown.

“In Our Hands” hopes to eliminate or greatly reduce single-use plastic drinking bottles at the 19 aquariums by 2020. Other aquariums involved include Monterey Bay (California) Aquarium, National Aquarium in Baltimore, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the New England Aquarium in Boston.

Toth said drinking straws can’t be recycled, and that they’re part of bungled plastic trash that winds up in ocean waters and into the stomachs of marine life that included turtles, fish and birds.

"We want folks to know the solution is in their hands," said Toth, who noted Americans use approximately 500 million drinking straws per day. "It's in everybody's hands."

An area in the Pacific Ocean known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is a “soupy floating wasteland” mostly comprised of microplastics — or tiny bits of broken down plastics, The Times-Picayune reported. In addition to causing problems inside animals of the ocean, the garbage patch is dense enough to block sunlight from penetrating through the water to reach plankton and algae.

Toth said that although plastics will be hard to replace because they’re inexpensive, the Audubon Nature Institute should be a pioneer in eliminating plastics.

"It's a big battle, but we believe Audubon should be a leader in it," Toth said.

»Read more at Nola.com.

Photo: One of 19 penguins rescued along with two sea otters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is released into its old habitat in the Audobon Aquarium of the Americas by volunteers as others swim about after returning to New Orleans following an eight-month refuge in California May 22, 2006 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The rescued animals were flown by FedEx back to New Orleans and will return to their home at the Audobon Aquarium of the Americas which is scheduled to reopen May 26.

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images News/Getty Images)