TACOMA — The next target of an environmentalist group is the disposable plastic straw.

By itself, your classic drinking staw doesn’t look like much of a threat to the Earth. But the ocean advocacy Lonely Whale Foundation wants America to consider the consequences of the estimated 500 million disposable straws the country goes through each day. In April, a National Geographic story called them “one of the most ubiquitous unnecessary products on the planet.”

Because many of those end up floating among society’s other refuse in the ocean, they end up contributing to a growing pollution problem. On its website, the Lonely Whale Foundation says the plastics in the ocean will outweigh all the fish by 2050 at our current pace.

Thus, the group wants us to give up the ubiquitous plastic-straw dispenser for other options, among them disposable-but-biodegradable paper straws, reusable metal ones and drinking materials with built-in straws. And, naturally, they’re going to Seattle in September to get traction for their campaign, which the foundation has hashtagged as #stopsucking.

Lonely Whale will be doing its awareness bit across the Emerald City for the month at various taverns, restaurants and other places where drinks are drunk. Safeco Field is in, per a Fast Company story, so buying a Coke at any of the month’s Mariners home games will get you involved.