[...] "Plastic pollution is surpassing crisis levels in the world's oceans, and I'm proud Seattle is leading the way and setting an example for the nation by enacting a plastic straw ban," Mami Hara, the general manager of Seattle Public Utilities, told KOMO News.
The National Park Service estimates 500 million straws are used by Americans each day.
The Seattle ban actually began with an ordinance prohibiting one-time-use food service items in 2008, but the city has allowed exemptions on certain items every year since. For example, Styrofoam food packaging was banned in 2009, according to the Seattle Times. But because of the market, plastic utensils and straws have been exempted in Seattle's ban until now, the newspaper reported.
Seattle bans plastic straws, utensils, becoming first major US city to do so
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @03:19AM (6 children)
you should carry your own reusable straw with you
Heh. Guys with purses^W fanny packs containing a knife, fork, and spoon; reusable cup; straw; whatever.
if you cannot drink from a cup
Reminds of the guy in "Airplane!" who has "a drinking problem". [google.com]
Even when I was little, there was a thing called a Tippy Cup. [google.com]
Kinda like using training wheels when transitioning from a tricycle to a 2-wheeler.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @04:58AM
When I was little, we had waxed paper straws.
I liked the way they smelled and I would always scrap the wax off with my teeth because it made them slippery. We didn't drink nearly as much soda (or eat at restaurants for that matter) as people do today.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Wednesday July 04 2018, @09:14AM (4 children)
Good idea, but about about your Homeland Security and the much loved TSA ?
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday July 04 2018, @09:25AM
I don't think they'll be banning straws, not unless there's a major commercial benefit to airside retailers (hence banning water)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @10:36AM (2 children)
Well, for starters, it's not -MY- TSA.
If it was, that useless bunch would have disappeared in a puff of logic.
Further, there's nothing that says all of that stuff couldn't be made of *durable, reusable* plastic.
WRT the knife, my cardiologist is Sikh.
I asked him about the dagger thing [google.com] WRT airliners and gov't buildings and he says that he carries a pocketknife everywhere he goes and nobody ever gives him any shit about it.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Wednesday July 04 2018, @06:20PM (1 child)
Reusable straws need to be personal, as cleaning them is quite hard. OTOH, paper straws work pretty well. And there are biodegradable plastics that would do a good job. (Just call them something besides plastic. (They're a different chemical, so that should work, but lawyers...) Call them stabilized paper or some such. (I.e., paper impregnated with a stabilizing agent. Wax was used in the past, but the corn stalk based polymers should do a better job, and still be biodegradable.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @09:09PM
Yeah, I've heard about that stuff but I'm not sure I've ever encountered it IRL.
It does make me wonder how well it would survive when dunked in a liquid for 15 minutes or more.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]