Disney Parks to Ban Straws

[Disney Irish]

Maybe someday, but it hasn’t happened yet. I understand it’s not just about the straws, but it still strikes me as a bit of a hollow gesture. The new Starbucks lids have more plastic in them than the straws, for goodness sakes. In today’s society I’m skeptical of anything that looks like virtue signaling.

Global change is slow, its the unfortunate nature of a planet built around nations. But change has to start somewhere, so why not here. Because as I said, if you wait for the other guy to start the change it'll never happen.

To quote some famous dude :

 

[Phroobar]

ANAKIN
We need a system where the politicians sit down and discuss the problems, agree what's in the best interests of all the people, and then do it.

PADME
That is exactly what we do. The trouble is that people don't wlways agree. In fact, they hardly ever do.

ANAKIN
Then they should be made to.

PADME
By whom? Who's going to make them?

ANAKIN
I don't know. Someone.

ANAKIN
Someone wise.

PADME
That sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship to me.

ANAKIN
Well, if it works...

 

[TP2000]

Meanwhile, in Orange County, California, we have several landfills. All of them are heavily regulated by state and federal government, have been engineered to allow no contaminated water leeching into the water table, and are now providing energy back to the community via methane gas filtering as the garbage biodegrades over the years.

This is the massive Bowerman Landfill in Irvine which provides electricity back to Anaheim.

Bowerman Power Project – A state-of-the-art landfill gas-to-energy facility located at the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill in Irvine, delivering 20 megawatts of renewable electricity to the City of Anaheim. This project, developed by Montauk Energy, designed and built by HRGreen, and hosted by the County of Orange, serves the equivalent of 23,000 average southern California homes with electricity while offsetting 86,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

But if you want to, just live like a Guatemalan and do it this way! So much easier!

 

[Disney Irish]

ANAKIN
We need a system where the politicians sit down and discuss the problems, agree what's in the best interests of all the people, and then do it.

PADME
That is exactly what we do. The trouble is that people don't wlways agree. In fact, they hardly ever do.

ANAKIN
Then they should be made to.

PADME
By whom? Who's going to make them?

ANAKIN
I don't know. Someone.

ANAKIN
Someone wise.

PADME
That sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship to me.

ANAKIN
Well, if it works...

 

[TROR]

China dumps 2.4 million tons (4,800,000,000 pounds) into the ocean. The United States dumps 750,000 pounds. I'm not going to say 750,000 isn't a lot on its own, but considering the size of our nation and how much the rest of the world produces, it's nothing. Further more, banning straws and plastic bags isn't going to make a serious dent even in that number. The majority of trash Americans produce comes from packaging, whether for food, toys, electronics, etc. If you believe we need to deposit less trash in the ocean, start campaigning to get companies to use biodegradable packaging on their products. If it is profitable to do so, then businesses should have no problem switching to make the change. But straws? That doesn't solve anything.

 

[MisterPenguin]

China dumps 2.4 million tons (4,800,000,000 pounds) into the ocean. The United States dumps 750,000 pounds. I'm not going to say 750,000 isn't a lot on its own, but considering the size of our nation and how much the rest of the world produces, it's nothing. Further more, banning straws and plastic bags isn't going to make a serious dent even in that number. The majority of trash Americans produce comes from packaging, whether for food, toys, electronics, etc. If you believe we need to deposit less trash in the ocean, start campaigning to get companies to use biodegradable packaging on their products. If it is profitable to do so, then businesses should have no problem switching to make the change. But straws? That doesn't solve anything.

<takes used straw and throws it on TROR's lawn... so little... doesn't make a dent...>

 

[SuddenStorm]

I have no issue with Disney eliminating plastic straws if, and only if, a replacement that is as good, or better is introduced at no additional cost to the consumer.

If I'm paying $5 for a coke, I want a straw.

 

[SuddenStorm]

<takes used straw and throws it on TROR's lawn... so little... doesn't make a dent...>

Wait till he waters his lawn, and shove as many small plastic straws in as you can.

 

[TROR]

<takes used straw and throws it on TROR's lawn... so little... doesn't make a dent...>

The oceans cover 510 million square kilometers. My yard is 0.00 square kilometers. To make a fair comparison, you'd need something 510x smaller than a plastic straw.

 

[shortstop]

The oceans cover 510 million square kilometers. My yard is 0.00 square kilometers. To make a fair comparison, you'd need something 510x smaller than a plastic straw.

How about a tiny plastic straw?

 

[MisterPenguin]

The oceans cover 510 million square kilometers. My yard is 0.00 square kilometers. To make a fair comparison, you'd need something 510x smaller than a plastic straw.

<throws a stirrer on lawn>

 

[Kram Sacul]

First they said that paper bags are bad and that we should use plastic bags instead. Then they don’t want us using plastic bags anymore. Now its straws. It never ends with these people.

 

[Curious Constance]

<throws a stirrer on lawn>

I bet he wouldn't care if there was already millions of stirrers on his lawn throw by someone else.

 

[Disney Irish]

China dumps 2.4 million tons (4,800,000,000 pounds) into the ocean. The United States dumps 750,000 pounds. I'm not going to say 750,000 isn't a lot on its own, but considering the size of our nation and how much the rest of the world produces, it's nothing. Further more, banning straws and plastic bags isn't going to make a serious dent even in that number. The majority of trash Americans produce comes from packaging, whether for food, toys, electronics, etc. If you believe we need to deposit less trash in the ocean, start campaigning to get companies to use biodegradable packaging on their products. If it is profitable to do so, then businesses should have no problem switching to make the change. But straws? That doesn't solve anything.

Every piece of plastic (even that straw you think is nothing) and trash that gets removed from the oceans and landfills is one less that gets into the food chain.

Remember that straw the next time you eat some tuna or a hamburger. As animals don't care where it came from when they confuse the little pieces of plastics and trash for food. So one day you could be eating parts of that straw you think doesn't matter.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Every piece of plastic (even that straw you think is nothing) and trash that gets removed from the oceans and landfills is one less that gets into the food chain.

Remember that straw the next time you eat some tuna or a hamburger. As animals don't care where it came from when they confuse the little pieces of plastics and trash for food. So one day you could be eating parts of that straw you think doesn't matter.

You can almost hear the sad violin music. Straws, because it might end up in your burger someday.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Microplastics

 

[Disney Irish]

You can almost hear the sad violin music. Straws, because it might end up in your burger someday.

And yet its truth.

 

[Kram Sacul]

And yet its truth.

Don’t worry. The straws won’t hurt you any more.

 

[shortstop]

Microplastics

Again, nobody is saying plastic waste isn’t a problem. It just seems odd to focus on plastic straws.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

It's not really a cage. Guess my profession?