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[...] "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) by Snotnose on Wednesday July 04 2018, @11:29AM (5 children)
Where did this oft-quoted number come from? There are 330 million people in the USA. This number implies every man, woman, and child used 1.5 straws every day, year in year out. I dunno about you but I don't remember the last time I used a straw. When I walk around I don't see a bunch of people using straws. The number makes no sense.
I suspect that a year ago someone pulled that number out of their ass and it's been quoted hither and yon ever since, with none of our illustrious "reporters" ever stopping to think "um, that sounds wrong".
My ducks are not in a row. I don't know where some of them are, and I'm pretty sure one of them is a turkey.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday July 04 2018, @12:50PM
Even Fake News @NBC [twitter.com] admits that one's Fake!
"NBC News on Sunday backed off a dubious claim that Americans use 1.6 straws a day on average, after critics noted it was based on research from a nine-year-old boy whose methodology never has undergone any significant scrutiny." foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/04/22/nbc-news-source-for-fishy-statistic-about-plastic-straws-is-research-by-9-year-old-boy.html [foxnews.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 04 2018, @02:19PM
Simple fact-checking gets in the way of advertising revenue.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday July 04 2018, @05:07PM
Everyone uses straws: https://thetrektrek.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/tng7rikerstraw.jpg [wordpress.com]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday July 04 2018, @06:38PM
I don't know where the estimate came from, or whether it's accurate, but your objection that it's unreasonable is wrong. All of those square boxy juice containers come with an attached straw. Many kids drink several per day. I've seen coffee shops that supply a variety of straw to stir the cream into the coffee, etc., etc. You probably have too limited a concept of what a "straw" is.
That said, this doesn't mean the figure is correct, just that it's not obviously wrong.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Wednesday July 04 2018, @07:28PM
Critical thought is dead. And numeracy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeracy).
It was important for numeracy to be killed off first in case someone had the question of where did that number come from they would have to google instead of thinking for 1/10th of a second.