City leaders in Norwalk and Stamford are joining together to ban plastic straws and stirrers in an effort to reduce waste.

The mayors of Norwalk and Stamford, along with other city leaders, made the announcement Monday for Earth Day. They are working on a city ordinance to ban single-use plastic straws and stirrers. Stamford Rep. Jonathan Jacobsen tells News 12 that city officials hope to have the ban in place by this fall.

Earlier this year, leaders of the two cities passed ordinances that eliminated plastic bag usage. The plastic bag ban goes into effect in Stamford on May 3 and in Norwalk on July 8.

"We want to become more aware of the things that we can do to clean up our cities," says Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling. "To clean up our state. To clean up our waterways."

It takes hundreds of years for a plastic straw to decompose, and they are too small to recycle.