THE (BIG) PROBLEMS WITH PLASTIC
1.6 STRAWS PER
PERSON PER DAY
Plastic straws are designed to be used for minutes but will stil be here when your great-great-great-great grandkids are alive. Multiply that daily habit by billions of people and suddenly “just one straw” isn’t so small anymore.
DEFINITELY NOT RECYCLABLE
Most plastic straws are too small, too light, and too contaminated to be recycled. They slip through sorting machines and head straight to landfills—or worse, the ocean. Recycling plastics is a myth; don't drink the kool-aid.
ECOSYSTEM POLLUTION
Plastic straws break down into microplastics that harm wildlife and disrupt ecosystems. From sea turtles to birds, the damage ripples through the food chain and eventually lands back on our plates.
IT STARTED WITH A STRAW
Emma Rose is an environmental scientist turned straw-trepreneur with a lifelong commitment to eliminating single-use plastic. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Management and Sustainability from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Biological Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Before founding Final, Emma spent four years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, working in the Pollution Prevention Department, where she focused on waste minimization and environmental impact reduction at scale. Long before “sustainability” was a buzzword, it was already her day job.
While at UCSB, Emma co-founded Save the Mermaids, a nonprofit environmental education program designed to teach children about the harmful effects of single-use plastics—because real change starts with the kiddos.
In 2015, Emma took the message global with a TEDx Talk on the environmental impact of plastic straws, helping spark a larger conversation around everyday plastic waste. Two years later, she began developing FinalStraw with a simple but radical idea: create a reusable straw that people would actually want to carry.
FinalStraw launched on Kickstarter in April 2018, raising $1.89 million and becoming one of the most successful sustainability campaigns of its time. Since then, Final has helped prevent an estimated 100 million single-use plastic straws from entering our oceans and landfills—proving that small swaps can lead to massive impact.
LITTLE PRODUCTS, BIG IMPACT
We started with a straw, but we’re not stopping with one.
Now it’s time to stop forking around with single-use plastic
cutlery with FinalSpork and FinalFork.
A GLOBAL COMMUNITY
We started with a straw, but we're not stopping with one. Now is the time to stop messing around with single-use plastic. Go reusable with FinalStraw and FinalFork.
