Straws Suck But You Don't Have To, Says Young Eco-Warrior

When a nine-year-old sets out to change the world - one straw at a time - and achieves incredible success doing so, it should hit home how easily people can make a difference if they put their minds to it.

Australian teen Molly Steer (15) is on a mission to encourage every school in Australia - and one day, across the world - to stop using single-use plastic straws in their tuckshops and canteens. Why? "Because straws really
do suck," she says!

Molly launched the #StrawNoMore movement when she was only nine. She says she and her mom went to see a documentary at her local cinema called A Plastic Ocean. "Watching that movie was the first time I learnt about what plastic can do to our oceans. It was pretty shocking to me. "The movie showed a heap of birds found dead on Australia's coast. They were less than three months old. Autopsies found their stomachs were filled with small plastic pieces - more than 300 pieces of plastic in some cases," says Molly. She explains that the birds' parents fed the tiny bits of plastic to their babies, mistaking them for food. "The birds starved because  their tummies were so full of plastic that they couldn't fit any food in."

That day, Molly also learnt that a turtle's favourite food is jellyfish. "When plastic bags float in the ocean, they look a lot like jellyfish. The turtles eat these plastic bags, and their stomachs fill with the air contained inside them. "In some cases, this causes Floating Syndrome, which stops the turtle from diving underwater. This means it can't dive for food, and makes it vulnerable to predators attacking it from above. And, I'm sure we've all seen that video of the turtle with a straw stuck up its nose," says Molly.

Molly lives in Cairns, which is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. "The ocean and the reef were my playground. It was really sad and I knew I had to do something. In the car on my way home that night, I asked Mom how I could help. She gave me some advice, saying the 'easiest way to start anything is to start small'. "I was too young to understand what she meant, and I took it literally. Plastic straws were the smallest thing I could think of. So I started learning about plastics, especially plastic straws, and asked my school to stop using them in the canteen. That was the start of it," says Molly

Straw No More: Take the Pledge 

To date, more than 6 000 schools and about seven million individuals have taken the Straw No More Pledge.

Molly says the Australian government has implemented single-use plastics policies. In addition, she convinced McDonald's Australia to switch to paper straws.

"Netball Australia and the Sydney Opera House also took the Straw No More pledge really early," she says.

Be a Mosquito!

Molly encourages young people to 'be a mosquito'.

"It's a phrase used by my mom's friend when she is trying to get something done," says Molly.

When she learnt about the harm single-use plastics are doing to the ocean, she knew it wasn't right, and wanted to contribute to fixing the problem.

"I saw something that was wrong and I started looking for solutions. But I was just a little girl, right? I didn't think people would take me seriously. But then I thought about Mom's friend saying 'be a mosquito'. Mosquitos are really small, but have you ever tried to sleep when there's one in the room?

"So, my message to all young people who have a dream or an idea is 'be a mosquito'. Start dreaming. Start talking. Start doing. Because the future belongs to us kids and our ideas," says Molly.