I mean, you'd probably be better off just not going to the bar/restaurant in the first place. Plastic pollution is sort-of orthogonal to greenhouse gas emission

I mean, you'd probably be better off just not going to the bar/restaurant in the first place. Plastic pollution is sort-of orthogonal to greenhouse gas emissions, and orders of magnitude easier to solve. A straw is like what 0.01 lb CO2e (CO2 equivalent). The trip to the bar creates something like 1 lb of CO2e pollution PER MILE if you drove a car. The math is pretty simple but I think most people just don't like being told their lifestyle has an impact and they ought to make changes for the good of the planet. I'm not sure if a straw ban is an effective way to create meaningful discussion about reducing impact. In any case, efforts to enact it probably represent and opportunity cost which might be better utilized pushing for something like (at the city level, at least) electric car charging stations at all city owned parking garages. Here are some other, unsolicited, out-in-left-field, "fun" ideas I have for reducing climate change. - Create a Strava-like reward system for people who bike to work. Make it cool and adventurous to bike to work every day, NO MATTER WHAT! - Have cities pay employers to have employees work from home some days of the week. Preferably on a coordinated schedule so that highway volumes are reduced as well. This would reduce the need for highway infrastructure and reduce GHG emissions at the same time. - Subtly encourage people to just buy fewer things and travel less. Maybe you could accomplish this by setting up more community events (potlucks, movies in the park, recreational sports, etc). People wouldn't feel the need to buy stuff or get away so much if they were busy having fun closer to home. This is kind of fun: Other people should put their "fun" ideas for reducing impact here, I'd love to see them!