Meet the 14 year old founder of Skip the Plastic Straw

Hi! My name is Chloe Mei Espinosa. I am 14 years old and the founder of Skip the Plastic Straw. I started my expedition when I was 11 years old for a sixth-grade school project, called the Passion Project, where I was able to research anything I was enthusiastic about.

As a scuba diver, I adore the oceans and seas and marine mammals. I was very heartbroken after watching the video of a plastic straw stuck in a turtle’s nose. It was a wake-up call to me and I knew I had to take action to protect these innocent marine swine from plastic pollution.

For my Passion Project, I chose to research and campaign against the use of single-use plastic straws. I established my website, SkipThePlasticStraw.com, and Instagram page, @skiptheplasticstraw, to educate people on the harmful effects of single-use plastic straws.

Americans use 500 million plastic straws every day, which could fill more than 46,400 enormous institution bus. That’s a lot of straws! Unlike other plastics, plastic straws are not recyclable or biodegradable – you use a plastic straw for a few minutes but it outlives you and stays on the planet for hundreds of years. Plastic straws simply break down into microscopic slice and marine animals mistake them as meat, causing them to disable, suffocate or die. If this doesn’t change, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. We all it is necessary do our segment to reduce our uptake of single-use plastic- and plastic straws are a good start!

Since my safarus launched in April 2018, I have convinced PALI Outdoor Science Institute in the San Bernardino Mountains, three academy districts( 128 schools in total ), and two hospitals in Orange County to join my expedition to remove all plastic straws from their cafeterias.

I established advertisements to display at all 128 academies to inform students and teaches of the new alter and to hopefully inspire them to bounce the plastic straw even outside of school. I likewise started a chide series to youngster groups and adults and have presented to thousands of beings on the harmful effects of single-use plastic straws.

I received the Captain Planet Foundation’s Young Superhero for Earth Award in 2018, Top 100 Influencers in 2018 in Orange County by The Orange County Register, the Junior Philanthropist Award in 2019 from Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, and Ocean Hero Award in 2019 from OCEANA in recognition of my work.

Last November, I was invited as a client to share my campaign on The Kelly Clarkson Show and, most recently, I was honored to be selected as a Finalist for the TIME Magazine/ Nickelodeon first-ever Kid of the Year 2020.

In 2019, I was given amazing opportunities to work on other environmental projects. I was also selected to be on the Delta Green Up Youth Advisory Board, are concerned with other youngster to help stir Delta Air Lines a more sustainable airline. And I was selected as a reviewer for the Redford Center Stories Film Competition, heartening middle school children to get artistic and produce abruptly films on lanes they can help pulsate plastic pollution.

Since I haven’t been able to do in-person proposals due to the pandemic, my sister( Ella Lin) and I decided to find other ways of reaching out to people, including launching a brand-new YouTube Channel called the Sustainable Sisters! Our channel is all about reviewing eco-friendly makes and labels, and sharing roads we can all help to protect our environment!

We too planned our first-ever Skip the Plastic Straw Global Cleanup Challenge with Litterati in the month of September with a point to collect at least 10,000 parts of litter. In precisely 1 month, we excess our goal and are caught up- and documented- a total of 11, 361 bits of scum! We had a total of 76 amazing participants from all over the world- including the USA, Netherlands, Spain, Qatar, Philippines, Pakistan, Africa, and even Singapore- who joined our global virtual cleanup challenge. For more details on my work during COVID-1 9, read my website blog: skiptheplasticstraw.com/ blog

Through this campaign, I’ve learned that it’s probable for one person- adult or kid- to make a difference for our environment. All it makes somebody who attends intensely enough to start their journey to low-waste living or even to begin a campaign.

Single-use plastic straws are a problem, but they’re merely the tip of the single-use plastic problem. If you can start by joining me to hop-skip that plastic straw and switch to alternative straws- like a glass, bamboo or a metal straws- or no straw at all, you will once be making a huge difference!

You can also help by printing or emailing my campaign restaurant flyer to your favorite eatery and ask them to consider switching to a biodegradable option.

-Chloe Mei

” Skip the plastic straw. Save our oceans .”

The post Skip the Plastic Straw’s Story& Campaign loomed first on Orange County Coastkeeper.

Skip the Plastic Straw’s Story & Campaign