Hauppauge, NY, April 9th, 2019: At the April 9th General Meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature, Legislator McCaffrey spoke to several Legislative actions set to make waves within Suffolk County, most notably the ’plastic straw ban’.
At the meeting, Legislators debated the resolution, which would direct businesses to supply patrons with plastic straws only if the customer requested them
Legislator McCaffrey on the proposal: “… I had a different opinion a while ago about this, you know, But...I did my own investigation, and I spoke to a lot of people. I spoke to someone who opened up a new restaurant, Restoration Kitchen in Lindenhurst, and everything he had is sustainable, the carry-out boxes are cardboard, and the plastics, the paper straws. And he just said to me, he goes, "You know what, it costs me a lot more, and that costs me ten times more right now for those straws than the plastic straws do. The other stuff costs five times as much. “And he said, "But it’s the right thing to do" you know, and it kind of sunk, sunk in. And a lot of people are doing it. As you said before, they’re joining. You go to a Hilton Hotel, anywhere in any Hilton, you cannot get a plastic straw, and they’re all paper straws. So they figured out a way to do it, other people have figured out a way to do it, and I think we can all figure out a way to do it, because the effect on the environment I think is going to be a positive one. So I’ll be happy to support this.”
Legislator McCaffrey represents Suffolk County’s 14th Legislative District which encompasses the Village of Lindenhurst, Babylon Village, the hamlets of West Babylon and North Lindenhurst, portions of Copiague, North Babylon and Babylon’s barrier beach communities.