News Disney removing plastic straws and more by mid-2019

WildRide

WildRide

Active Member
Genie_naughty_whispers said:
I will be handing out plastic straws and plastic shopping bags on Main Street. I’ll be wearing pins and mickey ears. Password for the goods is “ziploc presents Splash Mountain”
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I'm glad someone else notices the hypocrisy of Disney banning straws but allowing a plastic bag manufacturer to sponsor a ride.

The effect of Disney and other companies all pushing this will be next to negligible. The overwhelming majority of the serious trash pollution in the world comes from 3rd world nations. The US does a remarkable job in comparison when in comes to taking care of our waste.

If Disney was actually serious, they would ban the sale of all bottled soda, water, lemonade, etc. But that would obviously cut into their revenue stream... this is show-boating plain and simple.

No wonder Iger can't come up with original park attractions and relies on IP acquisitions and sequels for content... they can't even come up with a great PR stunt.
 
bunnyman

bunnyman

Well-Known Member
Is it me or it appears contrary that while they're announcing this endeavor, they name Ziploc the official sponsor of Splash Mountain, and they'll be giving out themed bags?
 
Lensman

Lensman

Well-Known Member
DisAl said:
FYI, the food waste along with other organic material is composted and used for fertilizer at WDW. Waste water is treated and then used for irrigation. WDW is probably more environmentally responsible than 90% of the companies in the U.S.
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They seem to be moving in the right direction, but TWDC as a whole has just been average until 2018, when it seems to have made some moves toward being above average. Take a look at the environmental score for DIS on Yahoo finance. The blue solid line is the DIS environmental score, the orange/yellow dotted line is the average 50 peer diversified media companies.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DIS/sustainability?p=DIS
Screen Shot 2018-07-27 at 10.03.06 AM.png


Note that sustainability scores represent a small but growing investment criterion. Only 2% of funds have explicit mandates to care about sustainability issues. At any rate, sustainability isn't just a public-facing media issue, but has become an investor relations issue as well.
 
LittleBuford

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
Mawg said:
I remember when we were suppose to not user paper and make sure we recycled it to save the rain forest. Now we should be using paper again. Soon we will be able to use CFC's again. It's all about what political/social agenda is popular and then we all need to jump on board or risk looking like someone or some company that does not care about the global environment. Does anyone else think this is kind of getting old. Seems like global warming is starting to get less and less chatter now.
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Does it really seem that far fetched to you that using paper is better for the environment than using plastic? All of us know how these two materials behave. There’s a reason we don’t flush plastic down our toilets.
 
geekza

geekza

Well-Known Member
Mawg said:
I remember when we were suppose to not user paper and make sure we recycled it to save the rain forest. Now we should be using paper again. Soon we will be able to use CFC's again. It's all about what political/social agenda is popular and then we all need to jump on board or risk looking like someone or some company that does not care about the global environment. Does anyone else think this is kind of getting old. Seems like global warming is starting to get less and less chatter now.
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The reason is that, in many cases, paper companies are using more recycled materials and are being more conscious about making sure that steps are taken to replace trees rather than cutting them down and running to the next wooded area. That isn't to say that deforestation isn't still a problem in many areas of the world, but steps are being taken in a lot of places to lessen the impact of the lumber industry.

As for "global warming," that's not heard as much because you have people who literally say, "I don't know. It felt pretty cool to me here yesterday, so therefore global warming is a myth." Although global warming is absolutely, 100% happening with reams of data to back it up, the term you hear used more these days is "Climate Change." That's not really pertinent to this topic, however, so I'll leave it there.
 
Gitson Shiggles

Gitson Shiggles

There was me, that is Mickey, and my three droogs
GoofGoof said:
Probably only the same people who brings their own straws to AK today...which I’m guessing is a very small percentage of total guests.
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👋

Propack Plastic Flexible Drinking Straws, Individually Wrapped, Food-Safe BPA-Free Plastic, 7 3/4 Inches, 400/box, Cold or Hot Drinks, Clear https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BFJ9Y0G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_GnZwBb5E4A654

We bought short flexible straws like these for my son when he was young. Not just for AK, but the whole trip. They work really well with the Take-N-Toss cups that have lids for straws.
 
Tom P.

Tom P.

Well-Known Member
LittleBuford said:
Does it really seem that far fetched to you that using paper is better for the environment than using plastic? All of us know how these two materials behave. There’s a reason we don’t flush plastic down our toilets.
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Literally the reason we use plastic shopping bags today is because we were told that paper bags were environmentally unfriendly and that the plastic bags would be better.
 
Tom P.

Tom P.

Well-Known Member
cambodia36 said:
Has anyone mentioned yet how they are going to give Ziploc bags away at Splash Mountain? I feel like this hasn't been said on here.
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Did you hear they're giving them away at Epcot too? I hope everyone has gotten that message.

I happen to know that Walt loved plastic straws and hated plastic bags. This is all just more of Bob Iger's grand plan to banish Walt's legacy from the parks.
 
LittleBuford

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
Tom P. said:
Literally the reason we use plastic shopping bags today is because we were told that paper bags were environmentally unfriendly and that the plastic bags would be better.
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Perhaps you were. People were also once told that smoking wasn’t bad for them. Today’s scientific consensus is that we should try to minimise the creation of plastic waste. I really can’t see why anyone would find this surprising or objectionable.
 
Lensman

Lensman

Well-Known Member
Tom P. said:
Literally the reason we use plastic shopping bags today is because we were told that paper bags were environmentally unfriendly and that the plastic bags would be better.
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Where are people getting this idea? That's not how I remember it and I shopped my way through the "do you want paper or plastic" era of the mid-80s. My recollection is that the move was motivated by money-savings by retailers and marketing campaigns by the petrochemical industry.

Note the following article from 1986 about paper vs plastic at the grocery checkout line:
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-13/news/mn-10728_1_plastic-bags
latimes article in 1986 said:
The 500,000-member General Federation of Women's Clubs, the nation's oldest and largest women's volunteer organization, this month will launch a nationwide letter-writing campaign to get grocers to carry only paper bags because of the group's concern about the environmental impact of plastic bags, said Ernie Shriner of Cheyenne, Wyo. Shriner heads the organization's conservation committee.
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latimes article in 1986 said:
The battle between paper and plastic bags mirrors a larger and more important struggle between paper mills--the nation's 12th-largest industry in terms of the wholesale value of goods shipped--and the No. 13 plastic and resins industry to become the material of choice for the packaging industry.
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Here's a 2014 article in The Atlantic on the rise of the plastic grocery bag:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/10/how-the-plastic-bag-became-so-popular/381065/

I found an interesting slideshare on the eternal war between paper and plastic presented in 1998 at the Annual Meeting of the Plastic Bag Association:
https://www.slideshare.net/george.makrauer/how-plastic-bags-got-killed
It's good to get the perspective from the industry about the battles between the Plastic Bag Association and the American Paper Institute. One thing that came out was the ruthlessness of both competing industries in funding "educational" campaigns for the public and environmental studies. It reminds me of a friend of mine who got research money from a diet pill maker to study addiction. His funding was cut off after results showed that rats became addicted to the diet pills!
 
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Tom P.

Tom P.

Well-Known Member
If this whole environmental push can result in bringing back the traditional paper grocery bags, I'll become an environmentalist. :)
 

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