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California Bill Proposes up to 6 Months Imprisonment for Unsolicited Plastic Straws

posted by martyb on Saturday January 27 2018, @07:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the That's-the-last-straw! dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, a person who violates any provision of the code to be guilty of a misdemeanor with each offense punishable by a fine of not less than $25 or more than $1,000, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not exceeding 6 months, or by both.

This bill would prohibit a food facility, as specified, where food may be consumed on the premises from providing single-use plastic straws to consumers unless requested by the consumer. By creating a new crime and imposing additional enforcement duties on local health agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1884

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:02PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @08:02PM (#629093)

    Talk about pissing off your base voters... I think I have met 1 RNC voter out of all the servers I have met.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:31PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:31PM (#629158)

    Those who are should view a film and we'll see if they don't come away with broken hearts and changed attitudes.

    The War on Plastic [counterpunch.org]

    Few documentaries have had quite this impact [...] Tears were recorded; anxiety levels were propelled as Sir David Attenborough tore and tugged at heart strings in his production Blue Planet II. The oceans, warned the documentary maker, is becoming a toxic repository, and humans are to blame.

    More than eight million tons of plastic eventually finds an oceanic destination. Decomposition will take centuries. For Attenborough, one scene from the series stood out. "In it, as snowflakes settle on the ground, a baby albatross lies dead, its stomach pierced by a plastic toothpick fed to it by its own mother, having mistaken it for healthy food. Nearby lies plastic litter that other hungry chicks have regurgitated."

    The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is only 1 of 5 such giant trash heaps in Earth's oceans.

    Ocean plastic pollution [nurdleintherough.com]

    Large, rotating oceanic currents are called "gyres". These gyres collect floating plastic debris and slowly funnel it toward the center, resulting in vast areas containing huge quantities of plastic pollution. We have discovered five major plastic gyres in our oceans, and several smaller ones off of Antarctica and Alaska.

    ...and the bill's sponsor is Ian C. Calderon (D-Whittier).
    Whittier is in Los Angeles County (very Blue; lots of tree huggers).

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:40PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:40PM (#629162)

      Who cares? This doesn't justify jail time or insane fines for handing someone a straw.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:54PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @09:54PM (#629169)

        The point is that it's not "a" straw, it's millions of straws.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @11:48PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 27 2018, @11:48PM (#629218)

          The point is that such severe punishments should not even be on the table for something like this.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @05:47AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @05:47AM (#629346)

            In a country where you pay millions for downloading 1's and 0's that punishment seems rather benign.

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 28 2018, @11:28AM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 28 2018, @11:28AM (#629402) Journal
              Two wrongs don't make a right.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @12:29AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 28 2018, @12:29AM (#629237)

        $25 - $1000 OR jail time. So I presume most restaurants would be looking at a $25 fine. Repeated offenses would likely raise the fine each time. One might make a similar criticism about the health inspectors requiring businesses to post signs reminding employees to wash their hands, or any number of health code violations. Those make more common sense since food safety is a more common worry amongst people, and not many people worry about plastic pollution.

        It becomes much more than "just a straw" when you have millions upon millions being used and thrown away every day.