News Disney removing plastic straws and more by mid-2019

[Nubs70]

The difference is landfill isn’t the only option... and one has future alternates while the other doesn’t. Paper is also a renewalable resource.

Exactly, paper is renewable. Just 1 paper company just replanted their 1,000,000,000th tree.

 

[MattM]

This is getting out of hand.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

If Starbucks was so concerned on their environmental impact, they should close down.

Sure, that’s reasonable. What a helpful suggestion.

 

[JoeCamel]

This is so much brainwashing corporate BS I could puke.

Food grade recycled fiber was available long before Starbucks decided to use it. If Starbucks was so concerned on their environmental impact, they should close down.

I watched them build a highbucks in Sarasota years ago. The building was - styrofoam! The stuccoed it and it still stands. Not really green to use that much expanded polystyrene but it was done for the wow factor not to save the planet. Highbucks is just another corporation looking to make a buck.

 

[John park hopper]

This is getting out of hand.

Exactly they want to take the straws out of our hands

 

[The Mom]

All the ice in the drink needs to melt before the drink will increase in temperature.

Then my thermal thermometer is broken. The drink in the one glass (I removed the ice after I filled and measured the temp of the next glass - so ?less than a minute) was definitely cooler - as I stated above. Little, if any, ice had melted. It may depend upon the amount of liquid, material of the container, etc. But in my test it was definitely 15 F cooler.

 

[King Capybara 77]

Just putting this out here ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45058971

 

[JoeCamel]

Then my thermal thermometer is broken. The drink in the one glass (I removed the ice after I filled and measured the temp of the next glass - so ?less than a minute) was definitely cooler - as I stated above. Little, if any, ice had melted. It may depend upon the amount of liquid, material of the container, etc. But in my test it was definitely 15 F cooler.

If it is an infra red thermometer (point and pull trigger) they don't work on wet or reflective surfaces reliably. For those you need a contact thermometer.

 

[The Mom]

If it is an infra red thermometer (point and pull trigger) they don't work on wet or reflective surfaces reliably. For those you need a contact thermometer.

It read the same temperature as my refrigerator temperature indicator, so I felt it was accurate enough for a casual comparison. I clearly stated that I wasn't doing it in laboratory conditions, and was just looking to see if there would be more than 2F difference in temp, as stated by someone. It may have been a bit off, but still showed a greater than 2 degree difference. So even if it wasn't 100% accurate, it most likely was not more than 10degrees off.

.

 

[The Mom]

I give up. Obviously putting ice in your drink doesn't make it more than a couple of degrees colder, and I've just been imagining it.

 

[GoofGoof]

Take a bucket or cooler, add some water and stick your hand in. Now dump in a bag of ice and stick your hand in again. I guarantee that the water and ice mix feels significantly colder than when it was just water. If you still aren’t convinced leave your hand in there for a few minutes.

 

[21stamps]

This is so much brainwashing corporate BS I could puke.

Food grade recycled fiber was available long before Starbucks decided to use it. If Starbucks was so concerned on their environmental impact, they should close down.

Sure, that’s reasonable. What a helpful suggestion.

I mean, I recycle.. but I still have non recyclable waste.. I could just burn my house down, only eat food from our own garden, become nudists.. and/or whatever other changes would be 100% green living, I guess.

 

[LSLS]

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.

The amazing thing about science is as new evidence develops, conclusions are allowed to change. The American alligator was endangered. It no longer is. That doesn't mean it never was. Just because you don't hear about global warming doesn't mean the ongoing research and peer reviewed articles published all the time are any less valid. Straw elimination also would probably be much more for the giant blobs of plastic waste floating around the ocean.

 

[Nubs70]

Then my thermal thermometer is broken. The drink in the one glass (I removed the ice after I filled and measured the temp of the next glass - so ?less than a minute) was definitely cooler - as I stated above. Little, if any, ice had melted. It may depend upon the amount of liquid, material of the container, etc. But in my test it was definitely 15 F cooler.

Thermometer may have a.+/- error factor. Also the temperature will get below 32F due to dissolved ion content. Such as adding salt to ice will result in liquid water at below OC, hence why salting roads during winter.

 

[Nubs70]

Except the research doesn't really quite match that theory:
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/paper-plastic1.htm

This gives both sides of the issue. Only big thing really missing from it is paper bags don't really biodegrade in landfills either, because that process takes oxygen and air flow, and the liners of the landfills are designed to prevent that (they want to reduce the release of methane since thats far worse for the environment). http://www.allaboutbags.ca/typesofbags.html

I'm very pro doing whats environmentally friendly, but the whole "plastic is evil" thing is overblown because the alternatives are often just as evil if not more so. I myself use a mix of reusable and plastic bags because I feel thats what is actually best for the environment. I try to limit my plastic bag use to what I will use at least twice.

Biodegradation of paper does not take oxygen. Biodegradation via oxygen is known as aerobic digestion which yields carbon dioxide and water as byproducts.

Biodegradation without oxygen.is known as anaerobic digestion which yields methane as a byproduct. Methane can than be reclaimed and used to fuel micro turbines to product electricity with byproducts of carbon dioxide.and water.

Anaerobic digestion takes longer than aerobic. Landfills can be thought of as fuel cells.

 

[Nubs70]

Sure, that’s reasonable. What a helpful suggestion.

Why not if the earths resources are finite? Destroying the environment in order to make a buck... How capatilistic.

If you also subscribe to environmentalist pablum, the ultimate in carbon sequestration is to cut down all trees and bury them in the ground.

Just as stupid as Starbucks holding themselves up as a pillar of environmental virtue.

 

[Nubs70]

I give up. Obviously putting ice in your drink doesn't make it more than a couple of degrees colder, and I've just been imagining it.

No need to give up. It was colder. It's just non contact thermometers have limitations. IR thermometers are subject to emissivity. Emissivity relates to material of construction and surface condition.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Why not if the earths resources are finite? Destroying the environment in order to make a buck... How capatilistic.

If you also subscribe to environmentalist pablum, the ultimate in carbon sequestration is to cut down all trees and bury them in the ground.

Just as stupid as Starbucks holding themselves up as a pillar of environmental virtue.

You had some informative posts. Then this lesson in extremism nobody cares about.

 

[Nubs70]

Take a bucket or cooler, add some water and stick your hand in. Now dump in a bag of ice and stick your hand in again. I guarantee that the water and ice mix feels significantly colder than when it was just water. If you still aren’t convinced leave your hand in there for a few minutes.

And I can guarantee the temperature of the ice/water mixture will not increase until the last cube is fully melted.

 

[Nubs70]

You had some informative posts. Then this lesson in extremism nobody cares about.

Point is environmental stewardship is a series.of tradeoffs are ultimately dictated by financial considerations.

Take for instance, paper recycling. When the U.S. recycling rate comes out for 2018, we will see a significant decrease in recycling rate. Reason being, China has put in place stringent quality limits.on inbound wastepaper.

This has resulted in the catering of recycled wastepaper prices. Prices have fallen to the point where it costs more to collect/sort than what a recycled is paid. This results in lower quality wastepaper domestically and a position where it is more cost efficient to send wastepaper to landfill.