Boy's crusade against plastic straws takes off

BURLINGTON, Vt.  Does that straw in your Shirley Temple really need to be there?

Milo Cress, a Burlington, Vt., 9-year-old, is of the opinion that it probably doesn't.

The fourth-grader is urging restaurant owners to stop making straws an automatic accessory to sodas and other beverages that are served to patrons and instead first ask if the customers want one.

Milo launched a website and an "offer-first" campaign earlier this year after reading that about 500 million disposable straws are used in the U.S. every day — enough, he says, to fill 9,300 school buses.

"When I learned that, I thought I could make a difference, and kids could make a difference," Milo said. "Anyone who can order a drink can order one without a straw."

Milo, with help from his mother, O'Dale Cress, launched the campaign and a website called BeStrawFree.org. It invites restaurants to accept a pledge to offer customers the option of whether they want a straw.

In addition to restaurants where he lives, restaurants in states such as Colorado, Illinois and Maine have jumped on board, and with publicity growing, international interest is building.

Many individuals have signed on to the movement along with the restaurants. "A bunch of Malaysian kids signed up, and a soccer club from Malaysia signed up, too," Milo said.

He's been interested in environmental issues for a while and likes to think creatively. When he was 6, he designed a solar-powered popcorn machine. Now he wants to do a solar-powered refrigerator. In between projects, he plays the violin, acts in plays, reads avidly and enjoys origami, Japanese paper crafting. Milo attends school at Burlington's Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes and he wants to be a computer programmer, or maybe a physicist or an inventor or an astronaut, he said.

Politicians are stepping up to praise the BeStrawFree campaign. Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss issued a proclamation recognizing BeStrawFree's offer-first policy as a best practice in the city. Vermont's congressional delegation also is impressed. Lawmakers praised the project and invited Milo to drop by the congressional office building this July after learning he and his mother were going to be in Washington.

It's been exciting to see the response to the campaign, the family said. Milo and his mother stress that it's voluntary, and they are not advocating a ban on straws in restaurants.

"In no way does it mean that people can't get a straw," Cress said.

Along with creative thinking, Milo has a practical side. He emphasizes that by adopting an offer-first policy, restaurants can do more than help the environment. They can help their bottom line.

"It saves them money," he said.