CAMDEN – Sea Dog Brewing Co. in Camden is taking steps to decrease its environmental footprint by reducing the use of plastic straws. Alysia Nilsen, an employee at Sea Dog, initiated the effort to do away with straws.

Robert Labbe, general manager of the Sea Dog, said the scope of the restaurant’s operation will not allow complete elimination of straws right away.

"Water and sodas to tables are only available with straws upon request," he said. "Many of our cocktails, as well, are no longer being served with straws unless it's upon request."

Little steps help to cut down the environmental footprint, said Labbe.

"Especially with our proximity with the harbor,” he said. “And there is already enough waste in the area. Some of it does come from here as a source, so our goal is to minimize that and ultimately to eliminate it."

Labbe said there are no plans to replace plastic straws with paper straws.

“Down the road it is certainly something we will look into, especially if we are giving away fewer plastic straws,” he said. “The cost of the paper straws could be absorbed that way."

Labbe said the company has cut its use of plastic straws by 30 percent.

"It's still a process of getting the staff used to it," he said. "There is a lot of muscle memory involved with just putting a straw into glasses.”

Labbe praised employee effort.

"The staff is certainly contributing," he said. "They are more than happy to reduce their environmental footprint. And it was one of our staff who spearheaded this."

Labbe said the restaurant also strives to reduce food waste.

"We are using a program called Agri-cycle," he said. "The goal is to eliminate food waste and that it gets recycled and gets put in an anaerobic digestion system off site. That gets turned into reusable biofuels that, in turn, reduces our waste expenditure."

Labbe said certain aspects are difficult to work around.

"We use metal instead of plastic ramekins," he said. "Obviously there are still to-go type items, but even our to-goes are compostable. We don't use Styrofoam. We use compostable paper."

Labbe said other Sea Dog Restaurants are making the same efforts to reduce environmental footsteps.

"We are a group of family restaurants that share the same concerns," he said. "Our Bangor and Topsham locations are using the Agri-cycle program. And I believe our South Portland location is working on eliminating the straws, as well. It's an effort that's handled by the individual properties, but multiple properties are involved."

Labbe is from Lewiston and has been with Sea Dog for 12 years. He took over the general manager’s duties in Camden location in May 2017.

He is encouraged about the upcoming season.

"We're in a position where we have the management team in place that can focus on the hiring, staffing and training of employees to maximize the food service atmosphere," he said. "There is no existing time frame for the phase-out of the straws. It's a movement that started and we are encouraged and excited about the progress we've already made."

According to thelastplascticstraw.org, 500 million straws are used and discarded every day in the United States alone. That's 175 billion a year filtering into landfills and littering water ways and oceans.