Queen Elizabeth Is Making An Eco-Friendly Statement With This Ban

Queen Elizabeth is making an eco-friendly statement by banning plastic straws and bottles from public cafes and staff dining rooms in Buckingham Palace.

Reportedly inspired by the work of nature documentarian Sir David Attenborough, the queen hopes the changes at the royal estate will help "tackle the issue" of rampant plastic pollution. (There will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050, according to one highly publicized report.)

Europeans produce an average of 25 million tons of plastic waste each year, less than 30 percent of which is recycled. Thankfully, the queen isn't the only one working to clean up the ubiquitous pollutant. Outside the palace's walls, the European Union is proposing that all plastic packaging across Europe is recyclable or reusable by 2030, and Cornwall is trying to become the first county in Britain to pass an all-out ban on plastic straws in an attempt to protect its coastline. We'll put our pinkies up to that.