The Ten-Year-Old Environmentalist: An Interview With Milo Cress

Saving the world before heading off to middle school. | Photo by Courtney Federico

I first met Milo Cress in late August while working as a FYSOP coordinator for the environment issue area.  My co-coordinator and I invited Milo to come speak to our volunteers on Education Day about his environmental efforts after viewing a news clip of Milo asking restaurateurs to offer customers straws instead of giving straws to them automatically.  This initiative is the foundation of Milo’s Be Straw Free campaign, which aims to ultimately reduce the use and waste of straws in order to prevent them from being littered or from sitting in landfills for hundreds of years. It is incredible that Milo has already received widespread recognition for his environmental efforts, especially considering the fact that he is only in the fifth grade.

Milo returned to BU after being invited back by the director of sustainability, Dennis Carlberg, to talk about Be Straw Free at an event with Captain Charles Moore.  Here, I was lucky enough to get the chance to talk with Milo about his beginning as an environmentalist and his big plans for the future.

The Quad: When did you first become interested in the environment?

Milo: Well, I don’t know, my mom always wanted to reduce the waste that goes into our landfills, so I just picked it up from her.

What gave you the idea to focus on decreasing straw use?

Well, I noticed that if I didn’t order my drink without a straw, it would come with one automatically in it.  And that seemed like a huge waste, because I don’t normally need a straw.  And it made me wonder how many straws we use in America every day.  We did some research, and we found that we use about 500 million straws in the US every day.  That’s a lot of straws.  So that’s when I decided that this is something I can do something about.  This is something kids can do something about.  Anyone who can order a drink can order one without a straw.

How did you spread the word about your mission to reduce straw use?

I encouraged restaurants to offer straws instead of putting them in every drink automatically.  And so it really picked up.  National Public Radio (NPR), domestic and international TV, and sites on the Internet picked up the story.  I got to meet the entire congressional delegation of Vermont.  It’s really exciting.

What goals do you have for the Be Straw Free initiative?

I’d like to get a national [restaurant] chain signed on.  That would be really great.  The ultimate goal of Be Straw Free is to reduce the number of straws that go into our landfills.  I’m not trying to ban straws.  And so I think I’d like it to become standard, like at a grocery store, they ask you, “Paper or plastic bag?” you know?  At a restaurant they [should] ask, “Straw or no straw?” or, “Paper straw?”  There are better options, too.

What do you think can be done about the current state of the environment?

I think that people can reduce their use and waste and dispose of waste properly, because that’s how all of the plastic gets into the garbage patch.  People just carelessly litter it.  And that’s a problem.  But waste going into our landfills is also a problem, so we need to first reduce and then we can worry about disposing of plastic properly, or just trash in general.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

I’d like to be an inventor.  Right now, I’m thinking about a window that birds can see so that they don’t fly into it.  At our house, we’ve got a whole bunch of birds.  We’ve got a bird feeder right next to our windows, so we get a lot of accidents.

What advice do you have for college students who want to live more environmentally friendly lives?

[Ask yourself], “Do you really need this piece of plastic?” or, “Are you actually going to use this for a while?”  And if so, make sure it goes into the trash and doesn’t get littered.  Because you see all of those cigarette butts on the ground.  I think that’s the most common type of trash.  And that washes up on our beaches.

For more information about Be Straw Free or to join the challenge to reduce your straw usage, please visit Milo’s website www.bestrawfree.org.

One Comment on “The Ten-Year-Old Environmentalist: An Interview With Milo Cress”

  1. What a great story! Milo serves as an example that the actions of one person can make a difference in the world. Kudos to him!

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