Plastic Straw Ban Enforcement

Hard in what sense? Your post came across as hostile to me, so maybe I came off as hard in defending myself. I am not hard, but I am not trying to be a push-over either. It irritates me when people try to manipulate instead of having reasoned discussion. I respect that other people have their reasons for their opinions and I am not going to use manipulation tactics to implore them to change their minds, only reason.

There is very much a herd mentality here. If your moo doesn't sound like the rest of the heffers moos then you get shunned. You may have noticed that by now.

Jokes aside for one moment.

Fouling the waterways and oceans is a no-no.

Most people agree that motherhood and reducing plastic pollution is a good idea.

Single use plastic should be eliminated where possible.

I can't help but think that subversives will still get their hit by hollowing out wooden implements to slake their illicit lust.

That reminds me, I reckon the last straw was a chocolate milkshake about age 12.

Here's a song dedicated to clutching at that final straw.

As Tryagain, my three fingered glover would say, "Ne Me Quitte Pas".

Yes, there is a trend in society now toward shunning civil public discourse and a corresponding one to shun every form of socialism by which people (ab)use democracy to effectuate economic support of some by others and redistribution. It's a sad breakdown of society, but maybe things will get better after they get worse, you never know.

That could be considered the last straw!

You seem angry to me, but perhaps you’re just very young. I’m not trying to manipulate you, what would I possibly get out of it...what would you gain? Stick with McG, he will guide you wisely.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/health/plastic-straw-bans-disabled-trnd/index.html

By Ayana Archie and Dalila-Johari Paul, CNN

Updated 8:14 PM ET, Wed July 11, 2018

(CNN)Daniel Gilbert uses plastic straws to drink his coffee in the morning. For much of his life, the 25-year-old has carried them with him everywhere. He's had to, because all plastic straws aren't the same.

Gilbert needs them to be the right length, and they have to be able to handle hot temperatures. And many restaurants don't offer what he needs.
The Owensboro, Kentucky, resident was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes the muscles to progressively deteriorate. As his muscles weakened, it became harder for him to pick up something like a cup, so Gilbert began carrying straws when he reached his twenties.

One night, he left his straws at home while he was at a bar with his friends. Typically, he uses bendable ones to position the straw closer to his mouth. But all the bar had was plastic stirrers. "I had to manage, but it took a lot of effort," he said. "It was really exhausting."

How Starbucks' straw decision lets me down

Gilbert and other people with disabilities fear that a growing effort to ban plastic straws will limit their accessibility at restaurants, on airplanes and at other service establishments.

Starbucks announced Monday that by 2020, it will phase out the use of all plastic straws in its cafes. This came a little more than a week after Seattle, the birthplace of the coffee giant, banned plastic straws and utensils from the city's restaurants, bars and food trucks.

American Airlines said Tuesday that it too will eliminate straws from its in-flight beverage service starting in November, replacing them with stir sticks. The announcement follows a similar move by Alaska Airlines.

The bans are meant to be a proactive step in easing the burden that plastic waste has on our environment. But they also may make life more complicated for people in the disabled community who rely on these tools.

Why plastic is better than alternative materials

Going without straws can mean struggling through the physical motion of putting a drink to a mouth, or leaking liquid into the lungs, or choking.
Emily Ladau, an activist and writer on disability issues, has Larsen syndrome, a disorder that affects the development of bones. Ladau is primarily affected in her lower body, so she does not rely on straws, but opts for them because it can be difficult to maneuver in a wheelchair and drink at the same time.

For people who need straws, materials other than plastic just don't do the job. Paper? It dissolves, or you can bite through them. Metal? It can get too hot or too cold, and can even be painful for those with symptoms like jitters. Reusable straws can easily be forgotten at home.

"Other types of straws simply do not offer the combination of strength, flexibility, and safety that plastic straws do," Disability Rights Washington, a nonprofit with offices in Seattle, said in a letter it coauthored to the city.
Gilbert has tried to do his part to educate others on why plastic is the most efficient material, but he often gets told he's wrong.

"I'd be more than happy to use more environmentally friendly straws," he said. "(The disabled community) isn't trying to be anti-environment. We're just protecting disabled people."

Starbucks, when asked about steps they would take to accommodate the disabled, said in an email, "Customers are still able to get a straw -- made from alternative materials -- and we will work with the disability community to ensure we continue to meet their needs going forward." It is unclear what those materials will be or if plastic straws would still be available.

The London Plane, a Seattle restaurant, started using compostable plastic straws before the ban, which may be an ideal compromise. But Kate Melges, the plastics campaigner at environmental group Greenpeace USA, said those straws still pose a threat as they must be incinerated at high temperatures to be broken down, which causes air pollution. "You can't just throw them in your garden," she said.

Why focus on straws?

The National Park Service estimates that Americans use 500 million "drinking straws" a day.

How much are we trashing our oceans?

Melges, who monitors ocean pollution, told CNN that plastic straws make up a small percentage of the debris found in the oceans and other bodies of water. On cleanups, she finds many more food wrappers and plastic bottles than straws. But she believes straws are a simpler problem to overcome.
"They're a relatively easy item to eliminate," she said. "They're not a necessity for every single person ... they're the first entry point into tackling plastic pollution."

What the Seattle ban means

In the Seattle ordinance, there is a yearlong exception for those with disabilities. "The new director's rule provides a waiver for flexible plastic straws, which can be provided to customers who need such a straw due to medical or physical condition," City of Seattle spokeswoman Ellen Pepin-Cato told CNN. Proof of a disability will not be necessary, Pepin-Cato said. However, the decision to provide plastic straws if needed is up to businesses.

"Requiring people with disabilities to treat a routine fast food trip as something that requires planning and supplies is an unplanned failure in equity," wrote Disability Rights Washington in its letter to the city.
Ladau, the disability activist, expressed similar concerns.
"Straw bans are a microcosm of the larger issue," she said. "Access needs are entirely ignored."

In other cities with straw bans, such as Miami Beach, Florida, there's no such exception. Miami Beach is, however, considering implementing a three-month educational program to get feedback from residents and businesses.

"The (Americans with Disabilities Act) was passed 28 years ago," Gilbert said. "There should be sweeping policies."

How about you stop talking about your assumptions about me and discuss what you want to discuss. You're provoking conflict by talking about what you think about me.

Whenever there is a restriction put forth as a measure to improve environmental responsibility, the needs of the disabled are highlighted as a reason to block the restriction, even though the vast majority of people aren't disabled in a way that requires the banned thing.

If you advocate reducing air-conditioning and heating to conserve energy, people start talking about old people and asthma. If you advocate narrowing roads to have more green space, they start talking about ambulances not being able to get through.

At least this article addressed that problem that indeed most people aren't disabled and so they don't need a straw. Why shouldn't they have a few plastic straws on hand for those that truly need them? But the question is whether other people will restrain themselves from lying and making excuses to get the straws. For some reason the public is notorious for abusing freedom in this way. If everybody would just be honest and do their best to do the right thing, everything would go so well, but no, they have to lie and manipulate and see how much they can get away with.

I’m not arguing with you, there isn’t really a topic on the table other than plastic straws.......enjoy your time on the forum.

Not The Plastic, Ono, Banned



No more sucking on plastic forever
Pushing the rubbish into the seas
Bagging one use chemistry
Chanting and ranting no more please

We've all been snorting elastic together
Some kinda fluid dude, truth be told
Doing plastic surgery
Some call it sick'ning, try breaking the the mold

Paper's the answer and you know that for sure
Paper's from trees
You got to let 'em, you gotta let 'em grow

what is the point of this post?

What is your point by whining and whingeing about other irrelevant issues that you've found here at a2k that have nothing to do with plastic straws and their possible ban (via city and/or state governments)?

my point is to discuss content. Some people's point seems to be to police people whose opinions they don't like. People should stick to discussing content and not post to get in someone else's face as nothing more than an act of hostility. That's bad forum behavior.

In other words, they disagree with you.

No, respectful disagreement makes for interesting discussion. Disrespect as punishment for disagreement makes for terrible, censorial, oppressive discussion.

How Banning Plastic Straws Could Make Pollution Even Worse

By CAMILLE HARMER and WILLIAM F. SHUGHART II July 12, 2018

Californians are embroiled in a debate over banning plastic products, including everything from straws to grocery bags. San Diego is considering prohibiting a particularly ubiquitous plastic product: expanded polystyrene (EPS)—better known as styrofoam—which is used widely in takeout food containers, cups, ice chests, and packing peanuts. (The trademarked product Styrofoam is slightly different than EPS.)

Concerning the proposed ban, Barbara Bry, a San Diego city councilwoman, said, “We must prioritize our health and the integrity of our environment over the convenience of styrofoam. Today is the first step.”

Unfortunately, Bry and other politicians advocating EPS bans ignore the costs they would impose on manufacturers and consumers, as well as the environmental tradeoffs.

While EPS bans almost certainly would reduce unsightly plastic waste blown out of dumpsters and discarded on city streets and parks, some of which ends up in lakes, rivers, and oceans, the alternative is worse.

Styrofoam bans sound good when taken at face value, but long-term effects must be considered before implementing them. Last January, California failed to pass a law prohibiting all food-service foam products statewide—and that’s a good thing. Such bans take into account only the styrofoam that ends up in the ocean—which certainly is a problem—but ignore their potential to cause increases in paper waste, carbon emissions, and water pollution.

EPS products are significantly cheaper and less resource-intensive than similar products made of different materials. For example, manufacturing a disposable paper cup requires at least 20% more fossil fuel and almost 50% more electricity than a styrofoam cup does. Paper goods, the most likely alternative to EPS, create more waste and water and air pollution than EPS does. The California State Water Resources Control Board released a study concluding that “mere substitution would not result in reduced trash generation if such product substitution would be discarded in the same manner as the banned item.”

There’s little difference between throwing away a styrofoam cup and a paper one, and paper products used for food handling are less recyclable than EPS products. They can’t be washed like EPS, and any food contamination makes them unrecyclable. Moreover, paper products frequently are thinly lined with plastic to make them sturdier and water-resistant.

Government bans also make less sense when considering that many large food service companies are already instituting their own bans. While EPS is used to ship meat, eggs, produce, and other grocery items (“food service foam products” are typically named in bans), the bulk of styrofoam is used by restaurants as takeout containers. It’s convenient, lightweight, and a good insulator.

Large private food retailers like McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Jamba Juice, and Chick-fil-A already have phased out polystyrene products or plan to phase them out or implement new recycling processes. Most recently, Starbucks announced its plans to reduce plastic pollution by phasing plastic straws out of all stores by 2020. Those companies see the benefit of reducing plastic litter and have taken the initiative to use alternative materials, even though they are more expensive.

Even though companies like McDonald’s produce more garbage than local eateries, small businesses would bear the brunt of styrofoam bans. In fact, an MB Public Affairs study found that banning styrofoam in food service and drink containers in New York City would equate to a 94% tax. Since local eateries generate fewer sales than large chain restaurants, they have less wiggle room for compliance costs. As such, these bans are likely to have disproportionately negative consequences for small business owners.

To address the problems caused by plastic pollution, it’s better to target its improper disposal than plastic itself. Most of the plastic waste in the oceans comes from countries that don’t have good systems for putting trash in landfills. Around 90% of the plastic in the oceans comes from just 10 rivers: eight are in Asia and two are in Africa. So banning plastic here in America will have little measurable effect on pollution worldwide.

California would be better off to encourage private recycling options, incentivize people to use EPS in more environmentally friendly ways, or wait until alternatives become more viable.

I think the plastic straw ban is ridiculous. Plastic straws account for 0.03% of the amount of plastic waste that reaches the oceans... a minuscule amount.

This is another way to make middle-class White people feel good about themselves without really accomplishing anything, it is literally the least thing they could do.

That article makes good points. You have to consider all the alternatives and figure out the most sustainable way to live and somehow achieve that. It might mean people eating out less often. It might mean banning restaurants from using disposable cups at all.

But what is the problem with restricting straw use to people who actually need to use a straw? Why can't people who can sip just sip?