Plastic straws, cotton buds and drink stirrers to be banned in England
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Plastic straws and drink stirrers, and cotton buds with plastic stems will be banned from sale and use in England from next April, the government has confirmed.
The move, which has been in the offing for more than a year, is hoped to vastly reduce the litter and other environmental impacts of the nearly 5bn plastic straws currently used each year in the UK, along with more than 300m plastic stirrers and close to 2bn cotton buds with plastic stems.
Huge numbers of these items, particularly cotton buds, are flushed down toilets or otherwise end up in litter – surveys have recently found waterways across the UK teeming with plastic, putting wildlife at risk.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/22/england-plastic-straws-ban
Again, plastic straws account for less than 1% of the actual pollution issue.
Not every fix can solve everything at once. It's better to solve small issues gradually than sit on your hands while you wait to solve massive ones and never actually do anything.
Just gonna put this here, as proof why they need to be gone.
https://youtu.be/4wH878t78bw
Well that's 1% more than the 0% we were solving before.
So long as they're willing to provide working alternatives that's fine. My fiancee's disabled and can't always necessarily hold a cup/glass properly so straws are a massive help.
What's the alternative for cotton buds? They're really usefull for cleaning small things
Probably the same thing just with biodegradable material for the stem.
You can already get ones with paper stems, they work pretty well.
There are biodegradable straws out there, non-plastic, but just as durable and useful. I've seen them around at a couple places I go to eat, so it's clearly an option (though probably more expensive).
For real, that'd be a super easy fix. They're very useful, but the stem is very much replaceable with something that breaks down easier.
Usually the paper straws work fine unless the place cheaps out on them, but metal straws are my go to and some pubs sell those and put the proceeds to charity.
(metal straws are also really good stirrers if you enjoy a spirit and mixer or cocktail. Dont need no bar spoon.)
The issue is that it tricks consumers into blaming consumers.
The big corporations (eg in the clothing industry), shitty waste disposal companies and fishing companies (discarded nets) are overwhelmingly the biggest cause of pollution; and whilst consumers are snapping at each for over plastic straws their attentions are distracted from those primary causes.
You, as an individual, might put proportional attention toward the various causes of plastic pollution (frankly I doubt it) but as a whole the population won't and the media won't either. Whilst we're here talking about straws the conversation is directed away from the actual perps of the real damage.
Seen another way it acts as a pacifier for people who want to be pollution conscious, peeps can wear their elasticised sports wear but so long as they drink from a paper straw they're good, they're tricked into thinking they're demanding meaningful change.
It takes systematic problems and blames individual consumers. (I think the plastic straw ban is a good thing, collective government effort against a systematic problem, though maybe some sort biodegradable plastic might be a favourable option for some)
plastic straw bans are placating bullshit that are easy to implement but do very little to actually solve anything. we should have placed harsh restrictions on the use of plastic in general as well as heavy sanctions on countries that do nothing to curb their waste disposal tragedies.
Why not implement a ban for any single use item that isn't biodegradable like baby wipes?
Hopefully that's the long term plan. They have to start somewhere but suddenly banning a huge range of products at once wouldn't be received well by consumers or manufacturers.
The cotton buds bit seemed weird until opening the thread and seeing they're only referring to cotton buds attached to a plastic tubing for grip and not the cotton, itself (which is very biodegradable). That should be relatively straightforward for companies to adapt to using other materials for.
i think the straws is stupid, paper straws are shite and its going to inconvenience people with disability's but fuck them the government has to introduce pointless bans to make itself look better
Over here in NY I don't think i've ever even seen cotton swabs for sale that didn't have the compressed paper stick things.
Time to stock up on straws.
No they don't, they disintegrate pretty quickly and it really affects the flavour of the drink.
And with milkshakes it's even worse since you need to drink those a lot slower and the straw gets even worse.
If they made them out of the same material as the cups it'd be better.
I was talking about the cotton buds.
This pretty much. Pollution caused by waste is largely systemic which requires systemic solutions. Can a movement towards reducing use of waste producing products help? Undoubtedly yes but it's a bandage to a fractured limb.
Straws are massively littered, and dipshits flushing trash into the sewage system is a good enough reason to not have them anymore.
honestly just ban everything that isn't out of wood in general
This is dumb.
Actions like this are dumb.
70% of all global pollution is caused by 100 companies. Yet, none of those 100 companies will step up or change. Instead, the entirety of the change is "On the people".
FUCK THAT. Yes, I will take responsibility for my actions, I will cut down meat use, driving, and other carbon footprint heavy activities.
Guess what that doesn't include? Fucking plastic straws and plastic bags. We need to put the blame where it belongs, on large corporations. On Petroleum producers and etc.
There's a study that shows regardless of demand, supply of oil has been going up for years. Without regard for demand. It is not a "Supply and demand" situation creating the problem. It is a "Supply" side problem.
I've got stainless steel straws at the office, they come with a flexible pipe cleaner, they're much more attractive than plastics and cheaper in the long run.
Honestly, good. I don't use any of these things anyway and I am doing my best personally to try and reduce the amount of plastic waste I produce
I know my efforts are basically on par with a fart in the wind but at least when there is no sea life I can say "I tried" [insert pathetic gold star for me]
Don't underestimate spite. If the average person accepts sacrifices for not polluting, they will want others to deal with the same sacrifices. First, other consumers. Then, the producers.
You need environmental counsciousness and social pressure to cause changes in our democracy, and this is one way to do it. If the average person doesn't think about protecting the environment, they won't elect representatives to do so on a grander scale either.
In a perfect society we could focus only on the types of pollution that truly matter, but our current system doesn't allow for that in practice.
Wait... People flush cotton buds down the toilet? I have always thrown them in the bin for as l can remember.
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