National “Skip the Straw Day” falls on the fourth Friday of February, and was started by a middle school class in Whitehall, MI., in 2017 to raise awareness about the environmental danger posed by straws and other discarded plastics.

Now, Orange County elected officials have designated March 2019 as “Skip the Straw Month” and October 2018 as “Reduce Single Use Plastics Month” and are asking local businesses and residents to forgo straws, Styrofoam containers and other single-use plastics.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners, and town officials in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, passed proclamations last week, while Hillsborough is expected to pass a similar proclamation at their Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday.

Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said the town is asking residents to consider how their own choices contribute to plastic waste.

“We want to encourage citizens, in the entire county and all the jurisdictions, to ask the places that you frequent to consider switching to items that don’t cause as much pollution,” she said.

The Orange County board’s proclamation points to the danger posed by hundreds of millions of plastics produced very year to water and food supplies. Many single-use plastics, like containers made of Styrofoam or plastic bags, are not recycled, according to Orange County’s website.

During the Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting, Chapel Hill resident Kim Piracci said awareness is a first step in combating climate change.

“I have to believe that we could make a dent in our energy use, and by extension, the burning of fossil fuels,” Piracci said.

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