Jim and Woody Walker own the OK Bicycle Shop and Liquid Lounge in downtown Mobile. The two eateries feature menus of gourmet Mexican cuisine and sushi, respectively. The brothers consider themselves environmentally conscious. So earlier this year they’d begun making strides by ordering paper straws instead of plastic, whether their customers liked it or not.
“It’s amazing the kickback we’ve gotten from straws," says Jim Walker. "I never would have anticipated that.”
Environmentalism is one thing. Economics is another. A to-go container made of Styrofoam at the OK Bicycle Shop cost less than a penny before the Walkers replaced it with one made of paper. Each of those carries a cost of ninety-eight cents each. But, Mississippi State University and Uncle Sam seem ready to help.
“We just want people to make whatever changes they can, no matter how small they seem, every time that we skip the plastic we make a difference.”
Elizabeth Engelbretsen is a public interest landscape designer with MSU’s design studio, and works with its Plastic Free Gulf Coast initiative. The school is teaming up with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to hand out Marine Debris Prevention Grants. Plastic Free Gulf Coast decides who gets the mo ney, which is about $14,000 in total. One business in each of the five Gulf States gets a cut. And, in Alabama, she said the Walkers were a good fit.
“We just want people to make whatever changes they can, no matter how small they seem, every time that we skip the plastic we make a difference," says Engelbretsen.
At the Mockingbird Cafe in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the grant helped its owners completely ween themselves off of single-use plastics over a seven-month period without having to raise prices for their customers.
“We’re helping them make up the overage until we can figure out how they’re going to do this long term,” says Engelbretsen.
She says society in general is just starting to grasp the gravity of petroleum-based plastic’s impact on the environment. And while Plastic Free Gulf Coast can’t yet tackle other serious issues, like the prevalence of unfiltered microfibers from clothing in our water system, stemming the use of single-use plastics is a positive start.
“We’re purchasing our own demise, we’re being sold the destruction of our planet through single-use plastics and plastics in general," Engelbretsen asserts. "Single-use plastic never ever goes away. All the plastic we’ve ever created on this planet is still around."
The Marine Debris Prevention Grant is one local application of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance’s expansive Gulf Star program. The Alliance is an organization dedicated to helping sustain resources in the Gulf of Mexico. And Gulf Star manages partnerships between public and private entities which fund organizations such as Plastic Free Gulf Coast. In addition to its work with the OK Bicycle Shop and Liquid Lounge in Mobile, Engelbretsen’s group also helped organizers of July’s Bay Bites Food Truck Festival put on the event without the use of single-use plastics. The annual festival benefits Mobile Baykeeper.
“Plastic Free Gulf Coast is not about shaming, it’s about including. A lot of times you can’t get away from the plastic, but you have to do the best that you can," says Engelbretsen.
Single-use plastics like the ones here at the Walker’s restaurants aren’t just straws, Styrofoam and to-go cups. In fact, Jim Walker said his restaurants’ biggest expense, in terms of single-use plastics, was on food film, like Saran Wrap, used in the kitchen. Now, he purchases film made of bioplastics, or PLAs. The Walkers see themselves as test cases in the federal grant program. Part of that job is working out the pros and cons of eliminating single-use plastics so they can share their experiences with other restaurateurs and business owners.
“The next thing is spreading the love," says Walker. "If everyone was trying with some effort to go green, it would lower the cost for everybody. I think that’s the next step.”
But, Jim Walker admits it’s been a tough sell. One customer refused a paper straw. So, he sent him a set of stainless steel straws as a gift. The line had been drawn; single-use plastic was on its way out at their restaurants. So the effort goes on, one sip and one take out order at a time.