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Recently a friend went to the US for a couple weeks and he said "they still use plastic staws, that why they are a superpower and we're not". It's a joke but d
by alecsm 3y ago
Recently a friend went to the US for a couple weeks and he said "they still use plastic staws, that why they are a superpower and we're not".
It's a joke but depicts the reality of plastic usage.
- addicted 3y agoWhat’s the alternative to plastic straws? There was a push in many US cities to get rid of them but they switched to paper straws where the vast majority of them were possibly worse for the environment, and even if not, the benefits were not significant. Personally I carry my own metal straw around (especially for hot drinks…I’ve never understood people who drink hot drinks with plastic straws and I’d suspect whatever keeps a paper straw from not collapsing with hot drinks is likely to be something I don’t want in my system either) but am not sure if that’s a scalable solution? Is that what Europeans do? Alternatively, of course, you just don’t use straws. Glasses exist…
- SoftTalker 3y ago> just don’t use straws This is what I do. Not sure why straws are so popular. I heard restaurants pushed them because it made people drink more/faster, but most places have free refills these days so that doesn't really make sense anymore.
- rob74 3y agoIt's kinda hard to drink a soft drink with ice cubes without a straw. Get rid of the ice cubes, and you don't need a straw anymore. Or you could use a (paper!) lid similar to that on coffee-to-go cups.
- rascul 3y ago> It's kinda hard to drink a soft drink with ice cubes without a straw. What's hard about it? I seem to have no trouble.
- Shog9 3y agoThey're really great for drinking while driving without spilling your drink on bumpy roads.
- whatwhaaaaat 3y agoI can’t recall the last US restaurant that didn’t have free drink refills. Why would they want to push people to consume something they refill for free faster? Is it possible people just like straws?
- SoftTalker 3y agoThere was a time when drink refills were not free, you had to pay for another drink. The arugment was, they gave you straws so you would drink more and buy larger or more drinks. At some point restaurants realized they could offer free refills as a competitive advantage, (or save labor and have customers fill their own drinks) and now everyone does it. At that point, straws were just something that was expected.
- whatwhaaaaat 3y agoCan you prove this at all? I’m seeing White Castle offered free refills in the early 60s and plastic drinking straws didn’t become popular until the same time period.
- SoftTalker 3y agoI worked at McDonald's for several years in the 1980s, they did not do free drink refills (coffee excepted) at that time. As I recall, most other restaurants did the same.
- wigster 3y ago> What’s the alternative to plastic straws? not using straws?
- meristohm 3y agoYeah, I just don't use straws, except for the copper tube someone gave me, which I only use once or twice a week when I'm chatting with friends using a headset that would get bumped when sipping warm water. I mostly drink water, and am not concerned about spilling in the car. Now that I eat more fiber, from sprouted legumes, fresh fruits and vegetables, and microwaved-in-a-little-water root vegetables, I find I can go a lot longer without drinking water. What percentage of people drink who drink beer or wine drink it with a straw? What percentage of people who drink sugary beverages use straws, and why the difference?
- embwbam 3y agoThe plastic straw thing makes me sad. We spent our societal outrage on those instead of single-use plastic bottles. Sigh. I think they're a distraction.
- yesco 3y agoLooking at the big picture, in terms of trade off, how much benefits are there to plastic straw bans vs the large amount of inconvenience it generates for consumers? Hear me out. Plastic bags, plastic cups, plastic cup lids, styrofoam, plastic packaging, plastic candy wrappers, etc, frankly speaking, the average consumer does not give a shit about what these things are made of. Which is also to say, the average consumer would not mind at all if any of these things were required to be renewable. These are all things a manufacturer, restaurant, supplier, etc cares about, they are the ones on the hook for solving the problem of making these renewable, they are the ones who are usually impacted by most bans like this. But plastic straws are something that the average consumer does care about, they stick this into their mouth, it effects the quality of their meal. For people with certain medical conditions, all their meals must be consumed through these things. When you ban plastic straws you push a bunch of neutrals off the fence. Plastic straw bans don't effect the usual industries, so bans are naturally going to be easier. I'm sure that plastic straw manufactures would be upset, but largely speaking the usual lobbyists for this kind of thing are unlikely to care. This deceives environmentalists into thinking this is a low hanging fruit. So legislation is passed, consumers get pissed, and now the people who care about the environment are less likely to get re-elected. Was it worth it?