California Considers $1,000 Fine for Waiters Offering Unsolicited Plastic Straws
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2018 Jan 25, 10:41am 14,074 views 52 comments
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44
richwicks
2022 Aug 16, 12:50am
richwicks
2022 Aug 16, 12:50am
Patrick says
They do this.
Provided it's a high enough temperatures, it burns cleanly. This is what is done with most recycled plastic, provided it's not just sent to a landfill and that happens plenty too.
We really shouldn't be using so much plastic. It's stupid, for example, that bottled water is sold in plastic, and not a paper carton like milk is. Actually, bottled water is stupid.
The key is getting to really high temperatures. You might actually be able to generate power from plastics too.
They do this.
Provided it's a high enough temperatures, it burns cleanly. This is what is done with most recycled plastic, provided it's not just sent to a landfill and that happens plenty too.
We really shouldn't be using so much plastic. It's stupid, for example, that bottled water is sold in plastic, and not a paper carton like milk is. Actually, bottled water is stupid.
45
Eric Holder
2022 Aug 16, 11:00am
Eric Holder
2022 Aug 16, 11:00am
Plastic going into rivers and oceans is really Asian problem, not Europeand or American. 99.99999% of it gets into the ocean from Asian countries. But since it's easier to look for car keys under the street light than in the dark forest where they were lost, is us who's hammered with stupid bans on this and that. I don't throw anything on the ground, even fucking banana peels, while it's totally socially acceptable to throw all kinds of garbage into rivers in Asia. Or shitting in a plastic bag and trowing it into the bush or onto neighbor's roof in Kenya. But good luck telling them to stop it.
46
Patrick
2022 Aug 16, 9:11pm
Patrick
2022 Aug 16, 9:11pm
That "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" could actually be worth a lot of money if someone can make a ship that scoops it up, dries it off, and burns it or refines it back into oil.
47
HeadSet
2022 Aug 17, 6:14am
HeadSet
2022 Aug 17, 6:14am
Patrick says
More likely that all that low density floating plastic would barely make enough fuel to fill the gas tank of the boat that scooped it up.
That "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" could actually be worth a lot of money if someone can make a ship that scoops it up, dries it off, and burns it or refines it back into oil.
More likely that all that low density floating plastic would barely make enough fuel to fill the gas tank of the boat that scooped it up.
52
Patrick
2024 Dec 12, 1:05pm
Patrick
2024 Dec 12, 1:05pm
zzyzzx says
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/1500-pardon-st-thursday-december
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/08/28/paper-straws-worse-than-plastic-pfas-study/70702090007/
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/1500-pardon-st-thursday-december
The Dallas Morning News ran a story yesterday headlined, “Texas lawsuit accuses 3M, DuPont of concealing harm from ‘forever chemicals.’” It almost took forever to get someone in government, somewhere, to do something.
Doing the job the federal health agencies used to do, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton yesterday sued DuPont, 3M, and other manufacturers of so-called PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances), often called “forever chemicals” since they never degrade or break down. The chemicals are commonly used in waterproofing and non-stick coatings, such as on cookware or in protective sprays, and in thousands of other consumer products from carpets to pesticides.
But “these companies knew for decades that PFAS chemicals could cause serious harm to human health, yet continued to advertise them as safe for household use around families and children,” Paxton said in a statement.
The lawsuit (linked here) alleged that exposure to PFAS is connected to high cholesterol, increased risk of childhood infections, harmful reproductive and developmental effects, pregnancy-induced hypertension, decreased birthweight, testicular and kidney cancers, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, and memory loss related to personal item placement. Well, it didn’t actually say the memory loss part, but you never know. It would explain a lot, especially to my wife, who has to help me find everything.
Anyway, Texas became the third state to sue the PFAS manufacturers this year, joining Connecticut and Minnesota. The CDC’s web page on PFAS admits that “many PFAS are found in the blood of people and animals all over the world and are present at low levels in a variety of food products and in the environment,” and clinically notes “exposure to some PFAS in the environment may be linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals.”
So that’s not too good.
The lawsuit’s allegations, if true, are damning. The lawsuit alleges that DuPont knew PFAS were toxic as early as the 1960’s, because exposed workers were getting sick. In 1981, DuPont did an internal blood sampling study of pregnant or recently pregnant employees. Of the eight women in the study who worked with Teflon, two (25%!) bore children with birth defects in their eyes or face, and at least one more had detectable levels of PFAS in their umbilical cord.
Paxton’s lawsuit alleges that DuPont lied and told its employees in writing the pregnancy study showed the chemicals were safe. It then slowly and quietly reassigned pregnant workers to other divisions.
The government has known about the problems with PFAS for decades. One EPA enforcement action was issued in 2004. But our fabulously funded government agencies have not even managed to get a warning label on products containing PFAS. The CDC’s PFAS webpage links to hundreds of other government websites about the chemicals. Nearly every major government agency is involved in PFAS research, including the obvious ones like EPA, FDA, and NIH, as well as more surprising ones like the DOD, the Navy, and the Air Force.
You know, between all the forever PFAS in our bloodstreams and fat tissues, the mRNA spikes in our cells (injected or shedded), and the microplastics building up in our brains, it’s getting pretty crowded in here.
Either way thanks, Texas! Thank you for at least doing something.
Finally, if you have time and interest, read the well-written and informative lawsuit. You can start at paragraph 20 (“Factual Allegations”) to skip the legalese.
https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/press/PFAS%20Manufacturers%20Lawsuit%20Filed.pdf
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Ian Calderon wants restaurateurs to think long and hard before giving you a straw.
Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California's lower house, has introduced a bill to stop sit-down restaurants from offering customers straws with their beverages unless they specifically request one. Under Calderon's law, a waiter who serves a drink with an unrequested straw in it would face up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
"We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans," Calderon explained in a press release.
This isn't just Calderon's crusade. The California cities of San Luis Obispo and Davis both passed straws-on-request laws last year, and Manhattan Beach maintains a prohibition on all disposable plastics. And up in Seattle, food service businesses won't be allowed to offer plastic straws or utensils as of July.
The Los Angeles Times has gotten behind the movement, endorsing straws-on-request policies in an editorial that also warned that "repetitive sucking may cause or exacerbate wrinkles on the lips or around the mouth." Celebrity astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson (always up for a little chiding) and Entourage star Adrian Grenier have appeared in videos where an octopus slaps them in the face for using a plastic straw.
The actual number of straws being used is unclear. Calderon, along with news outlets writing about this issue—from CNN to the San Francisco Chronicle—unfailingly state that Americans use 500 million plastic straws a day, many of them ending up in waterways and oceans. The 500 million figure is often attributed to the National Park Service; it in turn got it from the recycling company Eco-Cycle.
Eco-Cycle is unable to provide any data to back up this number, telling Reason that it was relying on the research of one Milo Cress. Cress—whose Be Straw Free Campaign is hosted on Eco-Cycle's website—tells Reason that he arrived at the 500 million straws a day figure from phone surveys he conducted of straw manufacturers in 2011, when he was just 9 years old.
Cress, who is now 16, says that the National Restaurant Association has endorsed his estimates in private correspondence. This may well be true, but the only references to the 500 million figure on the association's website again points back to the work done by Cress.
More important than how many straws Americans use each day is how many wind up in waterways. We don't know that figure either. The closest we have is the number of straws collected by the California Costal Commission during its annual Coastal Cleanup Day: a total of 835,425 straws and stirrers since 1988, or about 4.1 percent of debris collected.
Squishy moderates on the straw issue have pushed paper straws, which come compostable at only eight times the price. Eco-Cycle skews a bit more radical, with their "Be Straw Free" campaign—sponsored in part by reusable straw makers—that urges the adoption of glass or steel straws. Because we all know how good steel smelting is for the environment.
In any case, criminalizing unsolicited straws seems like a rather heavy-handed approach to the problem, especially since we don't actually know how big a problem it is. But don't take my word for that. Ask Milo Cress.
"If people are forced not to use straws, then they won't necessarily see that it's for the environment," he tells Reason. "They'll just think it's just another inconvenience imposed on them by government."