How many people today grab a takeaway coffee cup from the local cafe to drink on the go? We don’t know, but the number must be enormous.. Most every one of the above have a plastic top that will last 100s of years. Some cafes still use plastic cups that last a similar time. Is 10 minutes of coffee worth 100s of years of trash?
These items can be seen littering our gutters and on our streets all over the place. If they were all cardboard, they would still be littered, but they would, at least, be gone in a short time.
They do not need to be made of plastic.
On the way home from the gym last week, a distance of about 1 km (1/2 mile), I counted the items of plastic litter on the curb as I walked. In that short distance I counted 63 pieces of plastic litter. Plastic drink bottles, bottle tops, candy wrappers, plastic film, polystyrene fragments etc. That seemed to be a lot to me. I guess it is a generational thing. Our parents would have been horrified to see that amount, whereas it seems to go unnoticed by our youth of today. In another 20 years how many pieces will there be on this stretch, -- 200? What will today’s youth think of that new amount then when they are older? Will their children be so readily accepting of a higher amount of litter? California’s straw law draws attention -USA
Posted on May 6, 2019 by DrRossH in Plastic StrawsWhen former Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law curbing the distribution of plastic straws in sit-down restaurants, it received wide – and largely favorable — attention. But to some, there was a surprise: The new law continues to allow fast-food restaurants to use plastic straws. Many people believe that the state should make all eateries use biodegradable straws, especially fast-food restaurants, which are the largest consumers of plastic straws.
Source: California’s straw law draws attention – Capitol Weekly
Republican state Sen. Travis Hutson of Florida has crafted a bill to prohibit the ban on plastic straws until 2024.
Hutson called for research to identify alternatives to everyday plastics before they are banned. He approves of people wanting to reduce plastic, but said he is “just not a fan of government on the state or local level telling a business what to do.”
The Republican mantra of governments being hands off business is such an outdated idea now. That might have worked 200 years ago when they were making non plastic items like wagon carts or wooden chairs. But these days where factories can produce millions of items per day, they can do substantial damage to the environment in a short amount of time. Far too short of a time for market forces to control them. For a republican to say we need to allow these companies to produce their damaging product for another 5 years while we do research is ludicrous. It just shows how out of touch they are with the real world and why they should not be in office. The role of a government is to work for the benefit of its people. This is why in some cases the government has to step in to regulate or impose limitations on businesses. It is for the greater good for all, and we need to keep this in mind. We can’t let governments be bought by wealthy corporations to do what they want them to do. There is far more than enough evidence that plastic straws are a problem and banning them now from the general public will no impose any restrictions on the public.
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