We went fishing for plastic on the Amsterdam canals

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Dear friend,

This week, Starbucks announced that it will ditch plastic straws by 2020. Of course, this decision is not effective per se (it is estimated that plastic straws account for 0.03 percent of total plastic waste by mass).

What I think is important is that there is an increasing attention towards the theme of plastic waste.

Also, it's no coincidence that Starbucks decided to ban straws this month. Indeed, this is the month of the #plasticfreeJuly challenge.

It all started in 2011 when a small group of employees from the Australian non-profit initiative Earth Carers decided it was time they had reduced their consumption of single-use plastics.

The small initiative quickly became a global movement that raises awareness on this issue. And that's why this year we're also joining in, trying to go plastic-free for the next couple of weeks.

Along the same lines, two of our writers went fishing for plastic on the Amsterdam canals. Yes, you heard it right. Thanks to the Plastic Whaleinitiative, they experienced first-hand what the notorious "plastic soup" is about.

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