A&W restaurants in Canada will eliminate plastic straws by January 2019. A&W will be the first quick service restaurant chain in North America to make this commitment. “We’re on a waste reduction journey,” said Tyler Pronyk, A&W Canada’s Director of Distribution, Equipment & Packaging. “By the end of the year, there will be no plastic straws in our restaurants.”

Restaurants will begin making the transition in August. The chain, which has close to 1,000 locations, says it will fully phase out plastic straws by the end of 2018 and offer biodegradable paper straws instead. The move will eliminate 82 million plastic straws from ending up in landfills every year, according to A&W Canada. “Introducing packaging innovations that reduce waste is key to A&W’s environmental strategy,” explains Tyler Pronyk,  “By using compostable packaging, real mugs, plates and cutlery, we are diverting millions of single-use packaging from landfills every year.“