News Disney removing plastic straws and more by mid-2019

[Nubs70]

You would think they would go paper, but at my local Disney store it's a $.69 tote bag or nothing. (They stopped giving plastic bags at the begining ov July, saying "Disney is going Green") It just comes off as a money grab and not an environmental help. Other stores that dont use plastic at least use paper and dont make you buy something to take your PURCHASE home.

Dont get me wrong I am cool with limiting plastics and having paperstraws, but let me ask this, if we take all the plastic out and start consuming more paper products wont we have a bigger deforestation/death of the rain forest issues...

Paper bags causing deforestation is misinformed BS

 

[Master Yoda]

I mean, your straw man (pun unintended) argument about going back to living like Mennonites aside...so if we can't immediately solve ALL environmental issues, we should just say 'screw it' and not even try? That's the problem with absolutes- this is not trying to rid the entire world of plastic yet, it's just a company, likely influenced by PR, that is taking an eco-friendlier stance. How noble a gesture is irrelevant.

Also your attack on the '9 year old's study' is an ad hominem attack. Regardless of the source, nobody seems to be debating the number. Frankly I'd trust this kid over, say, whatever comes out of Sarah Huckabee Sanders grunt hole. The number of plastic straws used is massive. The fact that they have a negative impact on the environment is sufficient. That a company wants to reduce this waste, regardless of their reasoning, is significant.

It seems like a pretty weird hill to die on. Maybe just learn to drink from a cup?

Quite a few people are, but I have yet to see something credible that would suggest the 500 million per day number is anything less than a conservative estimate.

This is an excerpt from a interview with Milo Cress

But as Cress began to dig into research on plastics and the environment, he noticed there wasn't much data: "I couldn’t find anything on our use of straws in the United States," he said.

So he called straw manufacturers himself, asking what they estimated to be the straw market in the United States per day. Some gave him a yearly estimate, which he divided by 365.

"Others gave an estimate of around 500 million straws," Cress said. "That was the number that I stuck to, because it seemed to be around the middle of what they were saying."

But with national coverage of Cress' statistic came criticism: Conservative-leaning outlets such as Fox News, Washington Examiner, and Reason, aimed to debunk the figure.

The teen is aware of objections to the less-than-verified stat.

"Why I use this statistic is because it illustrates that we use too many straws," he said. "I think if it were another number, it still illustrates the fact that there is room for reduction. That’s really my message."

Eco-Cycle, a Colorado-based recycling nonprofit that partnered with Cress' campaign, trusts his statistic. If anything, said Eco-Cycle communications director Harlin Savage, 500 million straws per day could be too low. And if anyone has come up with a different figure, Savage — plus a lot of other people, she said — would like to see it. She applauded the teen's efforts.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...verified-statistic-500-million-day/750563002/

The 500 million number breaks down to just slightly more than 1.5 straws per day for every person in the US. When I look at my own day to day life 1.5 straws per day would be on the low end of normal especially if you consider plastic stirring straws in the calculation.

 

[Nubs70]

Just one of many examples...

https://www.dieselforum.org/policyi...e-diesel-fuel-club-that-s-made-for-you-and-me

Better yet, WDW could segregate plastic waste and convert directly to diesel by catalytic depolymerization. A process commercialized by companies such as AlphaKat. Problem is that to be economical the retail price of ULS diesel needs to be upwards of $USD3.50/gal to break even. A commercially viable sized plant to process 400tpd of plastic would cost about $88MM.

This would be a very fitting display in FutureWorld.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

It seems like a pretty weird hill to die on. Maybe just learn to drink from a cup?

You gotta love how a 20 year old Disney policy becoming standard across all parks is enough to send some people into political hysterics.

 

[Master Yoda]

Better yet, WDW could segregate plastic waste and convert directly to diesel by catalytic depolymerization. A process commercialized by companies such as AlphaKat. Problem is that to be economical the retail price of ULS diesel needs to be upwards of $USD3.50/gal to break even. A commercially viable sized plant to process 400tpd of plastic would cost about $88MM.

This would be a very fitting display in FutureWorld.

Can all plastics be converted using catalytic depolymerization?

I know one of the biggest issues with plastic recycling is there are a bazillion different types of plastic and all have various levels of recyclability.

 

[Jeff056]

Yea I have kids with disabilities, this will effect me more and others like my family more than its going to help the overall environment. Waste of time and effort - focus on larger items that’ll actually have a positive impact on the environment

 

[kenny279]

I never quite understood the obsession with straws in the US... why not just drink it from the glass?

For many people I know it is more of a sanitary thing. I know I don't always trust that the cups are clean. not that it makes an unclean cup safe, but gives the illusion of safety since I don't have to put my mouth on the glass.

 

[imperius]

Yea I have kids with disabilities, this will effect me more and others like my family more than its going to help the overall environment. Waste of time and effort - focus on larger items that’ll actually have a positive impact on the environment

Banning straws is great for the environment.
https://get-green-now.com/environmental-impact-plastic-straws/

 

[Nubs70]

Can all plastics be converted using catalytic depolymerization?

I know one of the biggest issues with plastic recycling is there are a bazillion different types of plastic and all have various levels of recyclability.

Most plastics can. The softer the plastic the easier the conversion. Real hard plastics and chlorine based (pvc, cpvc) are not. Plastics and wood are long chain hydrocarbons. Depolymerization cracks the chains down to C10 chain lengths. Today's version is derived from 1930's technology Siemens passed on.

 

[ABQ]

Most plastics can. The softer the plastic the easier the conversion. Real hard plastics and chlorine based (pvc, cpvc) are not. Plastics and wood are long chain hydrocarbons. Depolymerization cracks the chains down to C10 chain lengths. Today's version is derived from 1930's technology Siemens passed on.

I assume today the reason this isn't done everywhere is cost? We've banned plastic grocery bags in our capital city out here in the desert due to the fact that they can't be recycled (affordably, I assume) by our local recycling plants. I assume a similar case can be made for straws?

 

[Jeff056]

Banning straws is great for the environment.
https://get-green-now.com/environmental-impact-plastic-straws/

Lol then there’s other rearch that shows statistics of how insignificant straw pollution is, just a matter of what you “want” to hear I suppose and there will be some number posted on the internet to make you feel good

 

[DisneyCane]

I mean, your straw man (pun unintended) argument about going back to living like Mennonites aside...so if we can't immediately solve ALL environmental issues, we should just say 'screw it' and not even try? That's the problem with absolutes- this is not trying to rid the entire world of plastic yet, it's just a company, likely influenced by PR, that is taking an eco-friendlier stance. How noble a gesture is irrelevant.

Also your attack on the '9 year old's study' is an ad hominem attack. Regardless of the source, nobody seems to be debating the number. Frankly I'd trust this kid over, say, whatever comes out of Sarah Huckabee Sanders grunt hole. The number of plastic straws used is massive. The fact that they have a negative impact on the environment is sufficient. That a company wants to reduce this waste, regardless of their reasoning, is significant.

It seems like a pretty weird hill to die on. Maybe just learn to drink from a cup?

You keep calling this an environmental issue. I will ask again, exactly what harm are plastic straws that are disposed of in the USA and either brought to a landfill or incinerated doing to adversely effect the environment? If Disney doesn't replace the plastic straws with paper straws, it will show that the only waste they are really trying to reduce is money to buy the straws and they are using the "movement du jour" to hide behind.

You can trust the 9 year old all you want but it is a fact that he made up the number that he used. Weather the actual number is more or less, I have no idea but the point is that an environmental movement started based on the made up number of a 4th grader. Either way, I'm still waiting for the description of the adverse environmental impact the plastic straws are having when used and disposed of in the USA.

I know how to drink from a cup. As I stated in an earlier post, I am a germophobe. I am grossed out by drinking out of a cup that has been handled by somebody else. Sippy lids are even worse because it is almost guaranteed that somebody touched the area that your mouth touches. Even for non-germophobes, fountains with refills are going to spread stuff when people drink out of the cup and then the area that they had their mouth on touches the switch bar.

 

[Nubs70]

Another chemical found in straws is known as wet strength. This applied in the paper making process that allows paper not to disintegrate when rewetted. Wet strength is derived from epichlorohydrine which remains in trace amounts after creating wet strength.

Epichlorohydrine is a Prop 65 cancer causing agent. New generations of wet strength have about 1000x less epi residual than the common wet strengths used in things such as 6 pack containers, cup carriers etc.. Problem is the new versions are very perishable, costly, only manufactured in Europe, and world wide production is sold out.

Some paper can also contain PFAS coatings. This is for oil and grease resistance. Common uses of these coated papers are for those cute muffin liners you see at McDonald's or Tim Hortons and fast food wraps. Google PFAS. This chemical is starting to get some press.

 

[Nubs70]

I assume today the reason this isn't done everywhere is cost? We've banned plastic grocery bags in our capital city out here in the desert due to the fact that they can't be recycled (affordably, I assume) by our local recycling plants. I assume a similar case can be made for straws?

If plastic bags are landfilled, is that not the ultimate in carbon sequestration?

One plastic bag in the landfill today is a volume of petroleum that will not be available to future generations.

 

[Master Yoda]

I assume today the reason this isn't done everywhere is cost? We've banned plastic grocery bags in our capital city out here in the desert due to the fact that they can't be recycled (affordably, I assume) by our local recycling plants. I assume a similar case can be made for straws?

As I understand it, the problem is the bags themselves. They are nearly impossible to machine separate when mixed with other items and just gum up the machinery. This is why so few curbside recycling programs accept them.

 

[ABQ]

If plastic bags are landfilled, is that not the ultimate in carbon sequestration?

One plastic bag in the landfill today is a volume of petroleum that will not be available to future generations.

Perhaps. I was only pondering why catalytic depolymerization wasn't done universally. Believe me, as I drive by two landfills in my own city often (the downside, I suppose, to the "blessing of size" in my county) and see countless plastic bags caught up in the razor wire surrounding the dump, it does create quite the "Environmental Tail" moment.

 

[larryz]

We have an oral fixation.

I go to my dentist for any required oral fixation.

 

[homerdance]

some people don't want to put their mouth on public glasses, I prefer not to in restaurants. Same could be said of course for using utensils and what not but glassware and plastic cups has always bothered me more. That's just my personal preference so I use a straw, I am sure there are a few others out there as well. I have no issue with the paper straws.

You mean you don't want to put your lips on the cup that is holding the liquid that is going to go in your body? I do not understand.

 

[GlassHalfFull]

we don't have kids.. and my wife always makes me get lids and straws for any cups we get.. "don't want a spill"... for the record we have never had a spill when we are together in the 15 years we have been together..

I have been looking forward to the day Disney backs me up, that WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' STRAWS. Fortunately I have replaced the plastic ones in our house that she always bought with stainless steel ones, but now she is going to have to carry hers to WDW....

 

[Nubs70]

Perhaps. I was only pondering why catalytic depolymerization wasn't done universally. Believe me, as I drive by two landfills in my own city often (the downside, I suppose, to the "blessing of size" in my county) and see countless plastic bags caught up in the razor wire surrounding the dump, it does create quite the "Environmental Tail" moment.

It is economic these days. The price of oil has to get high enough to make it viable. There are a few installations in the world operating. There are large scale pilot plants operating with the goal of converting wood for production of plastic bottles.

Back in the 30's and during WWII, Germany used this process to make synthetic diesel from wood as cost and availability of petroleum was scarce. The process then was a high temperature conversion process that resulted in generation of PCB's which is a no go today. The process today is at lower temperatures with catalysts that convert without PCB generation.