https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.d43b6963b2dc

Seattle becomes first major U.S. city to ban straws

In one fell sip, Seattle on Sunday became the first major U.S. city to ban drinking straws, an environmentally friendly move that leaders hope will spark a nationwide conversation about small, everyday changes that people can make to protect the planet.

A decade ago, the city adopted an ordinance requiring that all one-time-use food-service items be compostable or recyclable, according to the Seattle Times. But straws and other utensils were exempted from that law because there were not many good alternatives.

So the straws stayed, along with the environmental problems they cause.

Most plastic straws aren’t heavy enough to make it through industrial recycling sorters, according to the Strawless Ocean campaign, and can ruin an otherwise good load of recycling. Or they end up getting blown out of trash cans and car windows and ultimately wind up in the oceans, where they can hurt wildlife.

Strawless Ocean estimates that 71 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of turtles have some kind of plastic in their stomachs. The organization says ingested plastic can increase the mortality rate of marine life by 50 percent.

Now customers at grocery stores, restaurants, food trucks, even institutional cafeterias have to find another way to get liquid into their mouths. Compostable paper and plastic straws are allowed under the ban. People who have a medical need to use a straw are exempt.

Failure to comply may result in a $250 fine, although city leaders told the Times that the initial phase of the law is more about raising awareness.

In September, 150 businesses participated in Strawless in Seattle, an attempt to reduce the use of plastic straws. In that month alone, Strawless Ocean estimates, 2.3 million plastic straws were removed from the city.

“When you get your iced latte, you’re going to get a straw. When you go get your mojito, you’re probably going to get a straw,” Dune Ives, executive director of the Lonely Whale Foundation, which led the campaign, told the Times. “Once we start observing our daily life, it’s really easy to see how quick” the plastic adds up.

U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Adrian Grenier has lent his celebrity to the #StopSucking campaign.

But consumers also have been putting pressure on companies to do away with plastic straws. There is, for example, a petition on Change.org demanding that McDonald’s switch to strawless lids.

“Imagine a world where we could stop consuming 500 million straws a day, just in America!” the campaign says. “Imagine a world that is less dependent on plastic. That’s change we can start today!”

And even Seattle-based Starbucks is making an effort to change its straw-heavy business model.

The company is developing strawless lids.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BamaJeepster,

Not remotely surprising, cups next you'll have to drink from your hands next.

So Seattle is neck and neck with San Francisco in the lunatic competetion. I think all liberals who believe man will destroy the universe should stop emitting CO2 and CH4.

The future is closer than you realize:

The irony is that if if libs pass this ban, they will suck even more.

So does this mean if you are on your own private property and the straw police see you using a straw they can come on to your private property and give you a ticket.

quote:

Originally posted by spunk639:
Not remotely surprising, cups next you'll have to drink from your hands next.

That was my first thought. What about the millions of styrofoam cups and the plastic gas station pop go-cups?

I'd say that straws are the least of their problems.

 
What happened to paper straws. They worked fine, and that's all we had "back when". I see they are allowed under the new law, so just go back to them.
 

quote:

Strawless Ocean estimates that 71 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of turtles have some kind of plastic in their stomachs. The organization says ingested plastic can increase the mortality rate of marine life by 50 percent.

Wonder how much nicotine and cigarette butts are also in their systems.

Get caught smoking with a straw AND a gun, and they’ll probably hang you in the morning.

Port Angeles just passed a "Bring your own bag law". No more plastic bags in any store in that town. Seattle will be next.

Waiting for the lawsuits from disabled people.

quote:

Originally posted by nojoy:
Port Angeles just passed a "Bring your own bag law". No more plastic bags in any store in that town. Seattle will be next.

I'll bring my own bag. The STORES can't provide bags, but I'll bring my own:
https://www.amazon.com/Intepla...0_QL70_&dpSrc=detail

Funny how stores won't have plastic bags at check outs, but there are plastic bags in the produce section......

Meanwhile, Seattle city council nitwit has decided city should look into providing the heroin to use in the city provided shooting gallery, staffed with a public health nurse, to assist the heroin addict in getting high “safely” since some folks think there are too many ODs.

Genius thinks it will solve crime by reducing theft by the druggies to support their habit. Irony of course is the taxes the city “collects” for such folly is every bit as much “theft” but on a larger scale.

quote:

Originally posted by lkdr1989:
Waiting for the lawsuits from disabled people.

Exemption for those with a “medical need”, yet ADA and hippa protect folks from disclosing medical info. Welcome to “Catch-22”

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:

quote:

Originally posted by lkdr1989:
Waiting for the lawsuits from disabled people.

Exemption for those with a “medical need”, yet ADA and hippa protect folks from disclosing medical info. Welcome to “Catch-22”

I bet you can bribe the right official for a 'straw permit'. Soon all the celebrities and people with pull will be carrying around gold straw cases as a status symbol...Some animals being more equal and all...

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:


https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.d43b6963b2dc

Seattle becomes first major U.S. city to ban straws


.......Strawless Ocean estimates that 71 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of turtles have some kind of plastic in their stomachs. The organization says ingested plastic can increase the mortality rate of marine life by 50 percent.........

Yep, by eliminating plastic straws in Seattle, or even the entire US, it will have an impact on the plastic in the worlds oceans.

https://www.scientificamerican...astic-in-the-oceans/

The 10 rivers that carry 93 percent of that trash are the Yangtze, Yellow, Hai, Pearl, Amur, Mekong, Indus and Ganges Delta in Asia, and the Niger and Nile in Africa. The Yangtze alone dumps up to an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of plastic waste into the Yellow Sea.

Yet another thing the libs want to ban! This is the last straw.

You gotta be shitting me.

"If you suck in Seattle............"

This legislation will never catch on in San Francisco.......