A visit to the Lonely Whale Foundation’s Twitter account prompts an unexpected pop-up message: "Caution: This profile may include potentially sensitive content.” This is because of the website’s extensive use of the word “sucking”. What would usually hint of offensive material has a surprisingly moral explanation. The NGO wants to reduce the amount of single-use plastic straws and has started the “Stop Sucking” initiative. According to Adrian Grenier, actor and co-founder of Lonely Whale, people in the United States alone use 500m plastic straws every day, which is two per person per day.

Ordering a drink “without a straw” shall become as common as ordering one “without ice” or “without milk”. Overcoming the usage of plastic straws might be more challenging than one expects. It is a dear habit that dates to the third millennium BC, as Sumerians in Mesopotamia allegedly used straws to drink unfiltered beer, having to penetrate below a layer of hulls and yeast floating on the surface. Such ancient straws were of course not made from plastic, but mostly from reeds. Ultimately, consumers will have to decide whether switching to multi-use straws, not to mention abandoning them entirely, would suck – or not.