Americans have seen it countless times: whales with bellies full of plastic, hermit crabs making homes in small bottles and fish caught in discarded fishing gear.

“A year or two ago, I think most of us saw the picture of the sea turtle with the straw sticking out of its nose,” said Glenn Helseth, owner of Carrot Tree Kitchens restaurants and Toby’s Dog House in the Williamsburg area.

In a push to be more environmentally conscious, companies across the United States are swallowing larger overhead costs to nix plastic and provide biodegradable or 100 percent recycled items for their customers to use.

Local businesses and corporations in Williamsburg have also joined the cause, most-recently when SeaWorld’s Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Water Country USA eliminated polystyrene foam dinnerware products and switched to 100 percent recycled products.

Another big focus of the movement: straws.

“It’s something that’s been on my mind for quite some time,” Helseth said of his decision to stop offering plastic straws at his restaurants.

A 2017 study published in Science Advances magazine estimates 4 to 12 million metric tons of plastic waste generated on land entered the world’s oceans in 2010 alone .

It started about a year ago when Helseth began offering paper and plant-based straws at his four restaurant locations.

Paper and biodegradable straws about three- to seven-times more expensive than traditional plastic straws, but Helseth chose to offer them anyway.

“It’s an expense we consider worthwhile,” Helseth said.

Carrot Tree Kitchens locations also sell metal straws. In the past few months, Helseth has sold nearly 250 metal straws — a number that surprises him.

So far, the increased cost has not trickled down to the price customers pay for food at Toby’s Dog House and Carrot Tree Kitchens.

Culturefix Cafe also made the jump to paper straws about a year ago.

“I believe that we need to put more of a conscious effort in saving the planet, animals, the ocean — everything,” said owner Louise Wood. “Whatever I can do … I will certainly do that.”

Wood said she now saves some money by buying paper straws on Amazon instead of in bulk.

Some businesses say it’s not feasible to transition to paper or biodegradable straws.

At Food for Thought, paper straws has been considered in the past but they are too expensive to make the switch, said manager Alex Boren.

“We’ve talked about it many different times, but it just isn’t feasible,” he said. “It all depends on your profit margins and if you’re willing to throw out extra money to keep those items in stock.”

Boren said the restaurant uses about 200,000 straws a year and if they switched to paper straws, the cost would increase by 300 percent. He added that most people request straws even if they’re not offered at first.

Culture Cafe and Carrot Tree Kitchens are not alone in their efforts to preserve the environment.

In June 2018, SeaWorld announced it was ditching plastic straws and single-use plastic bags.

The Great Wolf Lodge announced in July 2018 it would replace all plastic straws with paper straws at all of its 17 locations.

There’s a Great Wolf Lodge on East Rochambeau Drive in Williamsburg.

Helseth said education is key when it comes to biodegradable food utensils.

First, Helseth has trained his staff to only give customers straws when they specifically ask for them.

“We do not just automatically slap straws down on the table,” he said. “If I can make an impact by impressing on you that you don’t need a straw, you’re less likely to ask for a straw when you go to other places using plastic straws.”

Culture Cafe also only gives out straws when customers ask. The change means the cafe gives out about 1,000 paper straws every six months, versus about 1,000 plastic straws every month.

“That’s how we control cost,” Wood said.

Second, Helseth said biodegradable and paper straws need to be properly composted — otherwise, they just end up in a landfill. He said many of his customers still don’t take the extra step to compost the straws, but he still feels his businesses are making an impact.

“It’s mostly a sort of feel-good thing,” Helseth said.

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