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This quantifies the nonsense of the San Francisco plastic straw ban, which was motivated by stopping plastic ocean emissions. And I still can't get a non melti
by BurningFrog 5y ago
This quantifies the nonsense of the San Francisco plastic straw ban, which was motivated by stopping plastic ocean emissions.
And I still can't get a non melting straw.
- ioseph 5y agoBYO metal or bamboo straw?
- BurningFrog 5y agoYou can, but you have to take them home and wash them.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- gruez 5y ago>BYO 1. I'm a man so I don't have a purse to put it in, thereby making carrying it around a pain 2. cleaning it probably uses more resources than making a new straw and disposing of it
- danbolt 5y agoI think the only true solution for this problem is normalizing shoulder bags for men. Perks include: 1) Space for a straw or extra objects but conveniently small enough for day-to-day activities 2) A good range of available colours and tones to match formality 3) Useful for holding travel documentation and other objects at the airport 4) Fun couples activities with matching bags
- colechristensen 5y agoHow many straws do you have to not use to make up for the amount of plastic in a polyester man purse? Do you expect that number to be surpassed before the purse is discarded and replaced?
- rad_gruchalski 5y agoWhy does the bag have to be made out of polyester?
- gruez 5y agoIs the other typical material (leather) any better?
- colechristensen 5y agoHow many bags have you ever owned that weren't primarily made of a plastic fiber?
- danbolt 5y agoPerhaps the best solution is to weave the bags out of disposable straws for now.
- mikewarot 5y agoMetal straw == a great way to puncture your throat
- qmmmur 5y agoI can't imagine thinking that banning any wasteful products is a negative. Do you really need a straw? Bring your own if you do.
- the_optimist 5y agoDo you have an easy definition of what’s wasteful and what’s not wasteful? If you don’t, then what you are imagining is wholly arguable.
- loldot_ 5y agoThe ban is not negative; pretending it has lead to a meaningful reduction in plastic ocean waste is. I think the reason most people are negative to the ban is that a great deal of resources has been spent on something that tries to solve a minuscule problem (0.03% of plastic waste) while at the same time inconveniencing people with disabilities for example. These resources could have been allocated to for instance a small financial reward for turning in broken/abandoned fishing nets.
- qmmmur 5y agoSure but I feel like it's just low hanging fruit which is why is so foregrounded
- creato 5y agoYou're ignoring the costs of these bans. They are low hanging fruit, but they also have almost zero impact. At the same time, there is opportunity cost in political capital as well as resentment against environmental causes. It would be nice if that resentment at least came with some substantial improvement and not symbolic hollow victories.
- qmmmur 5y agoMaybe we should just let it burn down if we're going to halt environmental progression on the basis that people will be too upset that they can't drink out of a small manufactures cylinder. Fuck me
- arglebarglegar 5y agoYou should just start carrying around your own sippy cup
- jimmygrapes 5y agoFrom my own discussions and experiences, and anonymously agreed upon by some public health experts[0], the plastic bag ban (and other single use plastics) has served to create a significant health crisis among the homeless populations in the same cities that champion the ecological good. When you have a choice between taking a dump in the street (your living area) and taking a dump in a plastic bag (or using a plastic bag to pick it up some do for dogs), even a mind-addled addict would prefer the latter. [0]: (note: ref near the end, but good read overall, if a poor source) https://www.statnews.com/2017/10/06/hepatitis-a-outbreak-san-diego/ https://www.statnews.com/2017/10/06/hepatitis-a-outbreak-san...
- joshuaheard 5y agoWhy even use a straw? Drink from the glass.
- titzer 5y agoOn the other hand, it reveals a lot about people. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone complain about non-plastic straws...even my 83 year-old uncle who lived through WW2...can't stop moaning about the tiniest inconvenience in his life. Like, what did people drink out of in the 1950s? Meanwhile I've picked up hundreds, maybe thousands of the bastards off beaches the world over. I picked up more than one today down by the river. Yeah, you're right. Straws aren't the main problem. Of the two bags of litter I picked up today, there were only one or two. You could ban everything but straws and there'd still be so much plastic in the ocean that if you were forced to look at it, you'd vomit. You're right. We're not going to fix plastic ocean trash by banning straws. We're going to have to fix plastic ocean trash by banning all one-time use plastics. For a start. And then ban the rest. And I guarantee you you're going to hate that.
- Overton-Window 5y ago> I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone complain about non-plastic straws...even my 83 year-old uncle who lived through WW2...can't stop moaning about the tiniest inconvenience in his life. Because it is obviously theatre to anyone with an ounce of intelligence and integrity. Another chance for unworldly Westerners to signal their grace without making real, substantial change.
- ARandomerDude 5y ago> We're going to have to fix plastic ocean trash by banning all one-time use plastics. For a start. And then ban the rest. That would be it's own economic and ecological disaster. How many trees are you going to cut down and how much ore will you mine to make this happen? And given the considerable weight savings plastics bring, how much fuel will we burn to transport our substantially heavier goods in the dystopia you envision?
- titzer 5y agoOh, we're in a dystopia already. Spend a day picking up garbage off a beach. I'll take the balsa wood to-go boxes or whatever you're dreaming up there. It's a paradise compared to the hundreds of bags of garbage I've picked up over the years and the heartbreak I feel knowing how enormous and completely fucking irreversible the damage we've already done in the last 40 years is. Pardon my bluntness, but if we had a better habit of not eating so many to-go meals and sat down and ate off a reusable plate with reusable utensils like all of humanity had to just 100 years ago, single-use plastic would have almost no reason to exist.
- dheera 5y agoPlastic in the ocean is only ONE of many problems with plastic. Just because you don't throw your plastic in the ocean doesn't make plastic a good material. Fact is that it's made from petroleum resources, has a high carbon footprint, doesn't recycle well, and piles up in landfills. That said, the straw ban is nonsense not because of this, but because they should ban goddamn plastic CUPS and plastic CONTAINERS first. I routinely get served a compostable straw with a petroleum-based plastic cup.
- amerkhalid 5y agoSeaconspiracy on Netflix was very interesting. It mentioned straw ban was backed by plastic industry because it had minimal impact on their business but it made people feel good.
- consumer451 5y agoThis is not logical to me. So because you now see that SF is a smaller slice of the global pie of pollution than you expected, then SF should not have attempted to address the local problem?
- NonContro 5y agoWe need to fix plastic use in the West, so that we can export the technology and solutions to the rest of the world. Same with fossil fuel use.