A TV spot for the campaign ‘Cyprus says no to plastic straws’ featuring ‘Salina the flamingo’ was launched last week.

The flamingo stands for the animals threatened by the use of plastic drinking straws, which the pupils of special school Ayios Spiridonas in Larnaca aim to save.

Ayios Spyridonas is at the forefront of the new initiative which started in September. The campaign was officially presented at a press conference.

As part of the initiative, the group of volunteers from the school will replace all conventional plastic straws with biodegradable or reusable straws which will be given to pupils in all schools in Cyprus, starting with Larnaca.

More than 2,000 multi-use straws were bought by people as part of the campaign on November 29 and given to 2,179 children attending public kindergarten in the Larnaca district free of charge.

“All pupils starting with preschool will get a reusable straw to take home, and after they have a presentation at their school about why we say no to plastic straws, they will convey the message to their families to change our habits together,” environment commissioner Ioanna Panayiotou said at the press conference.

In addition to the hundreds of people in bars and cafes who say no to straws when they order a drink, 800 pupils of private schools have adopted the action by buying multi-purpose straws.

The next step is to ensure money is available to buy multi-use straws for the 19,000 students attending primary, secondary and technical schools in the Larnaca region.