Britain to ban sale of plastic straws in bid to fight waste - Sensationalist Headlines

Introducing: the new McDonald's Nasogastric Intubation straw! Now no more sugars will contact your teeth.

Of all those things though straws use very very little. Not saying that there shouldn't be something done to curb it or deal with its' waste but an absolute ban is not the way to go.

Supermarkets usually end up with whole cages of plastic trays from stock and plastic wrap from stock too. Granted they're usually shipped to recycling depots but recycling only goes so far, and there's always cases where plastic is thrown away, or gets blown out of cages, or lorries crash...

not fancy enough are crystal straws a thing?

I mean I'd just stop wasting time all together and heavily tax non biodegradable materials so that it gives incentive to switch to proper materials, while encouraging reusable products like grocery bags and metal straws. Let's end plastic waste now.

I agree, but I also had a customer call me a terrorist at my old job for trying to charge him 5p for a plastic bag (right before we completely got rid of them in exchange for bags-for-life only), so unfortunately you have to do this sort of thing in degrees.

i drink through a straw because my finger joints are too unstable to constantly pick up and put down a cup. if shops don't start selling cardboard straws after this i'm gonna be kind of fucked

Could just have less sugary drinks also

oi mate you got a license for that straw?

Are milkshakes not a thing in the UK or something? How the hell do you drink a milkshake without a straw?

.. the same way you drink every other liquid? Also, "Geez guys, we were gonna try to stop the collapse of the ocean ecosystems and the deaths of countless animals... But be reasonable, how were we supposed to have milkshakes???"

a good milkshake is only technically a liquid, if you don't use a straw you have to use a spoon

Okay, so there's a solution, or let it melt a bit.. or have better priorities

I wasn't saying "therefore, straws are necessary", i was just correcting your point about it being a liquid.

This mindset is exactly why they're implementing this ban btw It's a small action on your part, but when everyone is doing it, it adds up. Although I probably would have preferred a large tax be slapped on non-biodegradable straws instead.

Do you not even support a tax, with the revenue potentially going to subsidies to encourage biodegradable straw production?

The citizens are where the money for said incentives come from, and hell, the taxes that would pay for these incentives would likely come from general taxation, which is applied broadly. Whereas this tax only applies to people who are actually buying these straws, seems much fairer tbh. And not pushing consumer preferences into the direction of biodegradables could stifle their growth (along with stubbornness/sloth) unless you're handing out some pretty big subsidies.

The 5p disposable plastic bag charge has done wonders. Adding a tiny amount to your purchase or offering discounts for using your own stuff definitely works.

Couldn't switching to more biodegradeable plastics like PLA (which is generally recognized as safe with food) and expanding recycling programs in urban centers be another solution? PLA is still pretty hardy temperature wise and while it does absorb water, its still definitely more sturdy than wax paper straws.

I would think the broader repercussions of this issue broadly outweigh any of the options of "who pays". Do the work, ban the straws or bring incentives, we can work out the details later and either way it doesn't particularly matter.

Why shouldn't people have to internalize their costs? And why a hypocrisy in the first place? Because this isn't just some arbitrary thing because we think you're a naughty boi who shouldn't buy things we don't like, your actions can incur costs upon others. Much like how driving increases CO2 pollution.

this is my post of the month

oof, that's slightly more than twice the price of domestic producers, let alone overseas ones. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/249570/7c6af7ca-27c8-4140-9b0b-84c4b71d2ff3/image.png

Well, I guess you should come visit me. Not a sandy environment, so there's no sort of airborne dirt unless you never clean your damn room No bugs 50% of the year.

Something as tiny as a straw multiplied by a billion becomes a big problem very quickly. But I do agree, the costs should go to both the producer and the drinks company (or whatever) to incentivise not using plastics themselves, people are more than willing to pay an extra so and so for a straw because they usually don't even know they are paying for it, put that suddenly on the business and they will quickly start looking for alternatives.

The funny thing is PLA is produced from corn startch, sugar cane, potatoes and other startchy sources. There's no doubt it can be scaled without much issue, but there has to be demand to back that increase in scale. There's some points that market forces aren't enough because they either stay with the status quo or oscillate around. The hand has to be forced for this to come to fruition.

Guess I'll have to bring my own straw to get milkshakes then. Who drinks hot drinks through a straw? That's honestly pretty weird. Plus heat causes plastics to leech the polypropylene and BPA faster into the liquid, which, while it happens anyway, is negligible if you're putting a straw into cold liquid, but warm or hot liquids will accelerate the process.

Why are you so arbitrary, though? It's bad when companies produce externalities, it's bad when individuals produce externalities. Why don't you pay for your behavior when applicable instead of shifting it onto everyone else.

I sometimes need straws because cold drinks are painful to drink without them for me. Though stopping he use of plastic disposable ones sounds fine if there's a good alternative.

Why not? Due to the free market, most costs will eventually fall on the consumer. That's part of why it works so well for a lot of stuff.