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Paper straws are fighting plastic pollution not greenhouse gases, so comparing them makes no sense. That being said, if you're reading this comment, you very l

Paper straws are fighting plastic pollution not greenhouse gases, so comparing them makes no sense. That being said, if you're reading this comment, you very likely in the top 20% of carbon emitters globally, so don't get all smug about it.

buzzerbetrayed 2y ago
Fighting plastic pollution by singling out plastic straws doesn’t make sense to begin with, so…
- serial_dev 2y ago
  Well, a plastic straw was stuck in the nose of a turtle, and the image of this went viral, so any kind of rational arguments are irrelevant…
- consteval 2y ago
  These endeavors virtually never make sense. Their intention is to single out consumers and make them feel bad for their habits. In actuality, consumers have little to no choice in the products they use. I couldn't live a plastic-free life even if I tried, and I'm somewhat well off. When you have to shop at Walmart to make it, your influence is even less. It's a strategy in responsibility shifting. Rationally, the source of pollution does not lie in the single mother eating with her family at Waffle House and using a plastic straw.
wkat4242 2y ago
> Paper straws are fighting plastic pollution not greenhouse gases, so comparing them makes no sense. Yes and no. These are almost never recycled and in a lot of places they are burned, not buried so they do emit CO2. Unfortunately in Europe they replaced them with pfas coated paper which is worse for health and pollution (forever plastic)
- simondotau 2y ago
  Generally speaking, products made from one material tend to be less bad than products made by glueing multiple materials together.
pornel 2y ago
They're not fighting anything. Your straw from a bar in a first-world country reliably ends up in a landfill, among heaps of other plastics. Far away from any turtles. The Pacific garbage patch is mostly from fishing nets, and the other sources of plastic pollution are mainly from riverside cities too poor to have good waste management. The whole plastic straw scare is so obviously attacking a minor non-issue at significant personal inconvenience, that I wouldn't be surprised if it was planted by climate deniers to make people angry at or cynical about actual environmentalism.
johnnyanmac 2y ago
Me as a person, or me as in a community where mostly the businesses consume 90+% of resources but my city still wants to try and limit how much water I use in the shower? I agree with the latter, and I suppose I indirectly contribute to it as a society.

buzzerbetrayed 2y ago

Fighting plastic pollution by singling out plastic straws doesn’t make sense to begin with, so…

serial_dev 2y ago
Well, a plastic straw was stuck in the nose of a turtle, and the image of this went viral, so any kind of rational arguments are irrelevant…
consteval 2y ago
These endeavors virtually never make sense. Their intention is to single out consumers and make them feel bad for their habits. In actuality, consumers have little to no choice in the products they use. I couldn't live a plastic-free life even if I tried, and I'm somewhat well off. When you have to shop at Walmart to make it, your influence is even less. It's a strategy in responsibility shifting. Rationally, the source of pollution does not lie in the single mother eating with her family at Waffle House and using a plastic straw.

wkat4242 2y ago

> Paper straws are fighting plastic pollution not greenhouse gases, so comparing them makes no sense. Yes and no. These are almost never recycled and in a lot of places they are burned, not buried so they do emit CO2. Unfortunately in Europe they replaced them with pfas coated paper which is worse for health and pollution (forever plastic)

simondotau 2y ago
Generally speaking, products made from one material tend to be less bad than products made by glueing multiple materials together.

pornel 2y ago

They're not fighting anything. Your straw from a bar in a first-world country reliably ends up in a landfill, among heaps of other plastics. Far away from any turtles. The Pacific garbage patch is mostly from fishing nets, and the other sources of plastic pollution are mainly from riverside cities too poor to have good waste management. The whole plastic straw scare is so obviously attacking a minor non-issue at significant personal inconvenience, that I wouldn't be surprised if it was planted by climate deniers to make people angry at or cynical about actual environmentalism.

johnnyanmac 2y ago

Me as a person, or me as in a community where mostly the businesses consume 90+% of resources but my city still wants to try and limit how much water I use in the shower? I agree with the latter, and I suppose I indirectly contribute to it as a society.