The Plastic Cup and Straw Emoji will be Removed, Why?

Telset.id, Jakarta – Sky Ocean Rescue created a petition with the intention of inviting people to care more about the ocean. The petition demands that the Unicode Consortium remove the plastic cup and straw emoji.

Reported from The Sun, this petition was created to coincide with new research conducted by Sky Ocean Resque. From the results of the study, it was revealed that two-thirds of British people were aware of the presence of plastic bottles in rivers, lakes or on the seas around their location.

“If this emoji is not banned immediately, we may have to remove the whale, fish and other marine wildlife emoji, as our oceans are drowning in plastic,” Sky Ocean Resque said in a statement.

Petitions created on the site change.org it till now has got more than 2,900 signatures.

If the petition is successful, the red and white emoji will be removed from smartphones and social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.

Also Read: Apple Presents Memoji Features, Like What?

For your information, about 8.5 billion plastic straws are disposed of every year and have the potential to contribute to 150 million tons of plastic waste that pollutes the world’s oceans.

These worrying statistics led British Prime Minister Theresa May to issue a ban on throwing away household items such as straws, cotton swabs, stirrers and wet wipes, which will take effect next year.

With the ban, it is hoped that there will be no more use of straws in cafes and restaurants. This step is in line with a regulation two years ago that required the public to pay a fee for a single plastic bag to reduce the use of the number of plastic bags.

Also read: Joining in, Microsoft Changes Gun Emoji in Windows 10

In fact, this isn’t the first time an emoji has come under fire. In 2021, for example, Apple and Microsoft banned the gun emoji that would be launched to mark the 2021 Rio Olympics in Brazil.

Unicode members agreed and chose not to launch a gun emoji, as well as a similar icon of a man shooting a gun. (BA/FHP)