THREE seaside resorts in Teignbridge will be hosting a ‘straw monster’ over the bank holiday weekend as they look to put an end to single-use plastic.

Events in Teignmouth, Dawlish Warren and Dawlish will be held to raise awareness of the environmental issues caused by drinking straws.

The respective towns have been supported by the Marine Conversation Society (MCS) the UK’s leading marine charity.

‘Slurper’ will be showing off a waistcoat made entirely of plastic, collected by the TRAIL (Teignmouth Recycled Art In the Landscape) group.

Amy McCarthy, from TRAIL, said: ‘The recycled straw waistcoat is the culmination of three months’ worth of used straw collection and a straw amnesty in Teignmouth, organised by our artists.

‘We collected around 50,000 straws from local businesses and persuaded most of them to stop using straws in the process.

‘The sculpture took two weeks to make, using roughly 30,000 of the straws.’

There are only ‘a handful’ of Teignmouth businesses which are yet to go straw-free, while 40 in Dawlish have made the pledge.

‘For an item that we often use for just a few minutes – even less time than a single-use carrier bag – plastic straws really do “suck”,’ added Emma Cunningham, the senior pollution campaigns officer for MCS.

‘This fantastic effort in Teignmouth and Dawlish has only taken a few months. We’re really proud to have been able to support TRAIL, the councils and Dawlish Against Plastic in this.

‘Let’s hope we can get all the local businesses on board very soon.’

Slurper will be on The Den in Teignmouth between 11am and 3pm tomorrow.

He will then move on to Dawlish Lawn on Sunday for the same times, and complete his tour on Dawlish Warren beach on Monday.