I'm against knee jerk, "settled science" derived from a 3rd grade science fair project pushed by political/ celebrity that provides only a binary solution that your are either for mandated abolishion are you hate the environment and want to kill people.
Ad hominem.
Also, where did you read that it was Milo Cress' third grade science fair project? I can't find a reference to this assertion anywhere.
If you want to solve this problem, invent a tangible economically viable solution rather than reliance on governmental interference and social pressure.
Where is the government interference that led to Disney's decision?
I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with social pressure. I think it's a good alternative to government interference.
For example, the Starbucks sippy lid. Will the plastic lid contain more, less, or the same quantity of plastic than the current lid/straw combination? The only improvement would be is the total quantiy is less. Presuming the total quantity is less, is the change meaniful or is the change just make you feel better.
Less. The change is incremental and symbolic, not meaningful. It is one less item to process, which probably means it serves to simplify some process in a way disproportionate to its materials quantity. For example, maybe lids are actually processable in the recycling pipeline. That would be helpful.
That's not the point though.
So they make a big PR splash with this announcement and at the same time add a disposable plastic paintbrush to one of their most popular and high-traffic restaurants? So a kid can paint a chocolate cup for 1 minute? And how much plastic is in the paintbrush versus a straw?
Regardless it's the hypocrisy that irks me.
By that definition, everything one does is hypocritical if you're not being needlessly consistent. (Wait, isn't that the hobgoblin of small minds? We want to avoid that!)
Look at the paper recycling push during the Clinton Administration. The government proposed an executive decree that all printing/writing paper purchased by the U.S. government contain 30% post consumer waste paper. As such, the private sector made available billions of dollars in financing to build out recycling infrastructure based on a future market created by the government. Approximately a dozen plants were built based on this promise.
The U.S. government never followed through on the 30% post consumer mandate. This resulted in all but 3 plants operating today with only 1 surviving without filing for bankruptcy protection. Thousands of employees were fired, several equipment, supplier, and vendor companies went bankrupt.
The 30% mandate felt good at the time.
I traced the government mandate that all federal agencies use paper that is composed of at least 30% post-consumer waster and through different mandates, it still seems to be in force. So what happened?
BTW, for reference:
Executive Order 12873 of October 20, 1993: Federal Acquisition, Recycling, and Waste Prevention
strengthened and expanded by
Executive Order 13101: Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition
And in the same period has started to hand out plastic bags on Splash and changed the Kidcot handouts to plastic bags. This is plastic that never existed before and no one ever needed
I don’t know if getting rid of the straws are good or bad. I don’t know if they are giving out paper straws, what the environmental impact of those are, etc
I do think this is a good example that when you claim you are doing something for ideological reasons, it’s easy to look like a hypocrite real fast
I would be impressed if they said we are going to look at all single-use plastics and look for alternatives even if it costs us more. That would mean they really believed in what they were doing. This is just them jumping on the straw bandwagon
I'm happy to try to use fewer straws or no straws. I find it hard to give up my ziploc bags for all use, but I have been using reusable seal-top glass containers more and more. I also try to reuse my ziploc bags as much as possible. I guess you would call me a hypocrite. I think doing so is hypercritical. But then, being hypercritical is a plus on these boards.
I don't see why people are getting so angry about this trial straw policy. It may or may not work. You can like or dislike it. We can at least try to be good humored about it, otherwise we'll end up without friends or with fewer "likes" on our posts.
One last thing: Does Universal also have a policy on straws? If not, do we think they will follow?
