Straws are Disappearing - What Else Should We Ditch?

[Sliver]

I've noticed at Original Joe's and Boston Pizza, you don't get a straw in your drink anymore. It's probably happening everywhere and I think it just started this year. Seems like a no brainer to eliminate something so wasteful since it's unnecessary, but I hadn't thought about it since I noticed I wasn't getting a straw anymore.

According to this site, the US uses 500 million straws per day.

There has to be other low-hanging fruit we can eliminate like this. Another one that seems obvious is those paper coasters you get every single time you get a drink in a bar. They must throw out millions of those every month across the country. And they're completely useless.

Any other obviously wasteful things that are right under our noses (not just in restaurants, but everywhere)?

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Sliver

There has to be other low-hanging fruit we can eliminate like this. Another one that seems obvious is those paper coasters you get every single time you get a drink in a bar.

These are essentially just ads though so I don’t see them going away.

Single shot coffee cups. I understand it’s convenient but they are super wasteful. Even if you buy the biodegradable ones they have been working on... still wasteful. How much do you think goes into producing those?

[LWcrowfoot]

Boston Pizza and Original Joe's.

[Slava]

Junk mail should be banned. It would actually have an environmental impact.

Although I do find it mystifying that we can get our straws to the ocean and not our oil!

[LWcrowfoot]

Originally Posted by Slava

Junk mail should be banned. It would actually have an environmental impact.!

Call the post office or leave a note for your mail carrier. Haven't gotten junk mail in years now. The breaking point for me was those massive bundles of flyers I'd get every Friday.

[lazypucker]

We should ditch all utensils as well. We can use our hands or lick the plates... </sarcasm>

[GirlySports]

Stamps

[PostandIn]

Cereal boxes. The plastic bag the cereal comes in is completely adequate for displaying branding and nutritional data. The shiny cardboard is an extra layer of material that's kept because its a better medium for brand identification than plastic.

Also, foam trays for meat products. Wouldn't the old stamped cardboard trays biodegrade faster?

[DeluxeMoustache]

Paper used for information

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Slava

Junk mail should be banned. It would actually have an environmental impact.

Although I do find it mystifying that we can get our straws to the ocean and not our oil!

I've said this a million times. Ditch junk mail and we could cut Canada Post in half and save the whales all at the same time.

Or maybe we should have some Van Isle hippies with too much free time develop a method to manufacture a pipeline out of re-purposed Pizza Hut flyers.

[nfotiu]

crypto currencies and the ridiculous amount energy and disposable hardware used to mine them has got to be human's greatest unnecessary impacts to the environment.

[Johnny Makarov]

I'm fine with straw disappearing from restaurants as long as the Server knows that you don't handle the glass with your hands on the rim. That is so effing disgusting.

[CaptainCrunch]

10% of our population.

[Zevo]

Eliminating paper garbage isn't the big problem, it's plastic garbage that takes thousands of years to break down and is making it's way into the oceans.

Plastic grocery and shopping bags is the next thing to go.

[bc-chris]

one thing that drives me nuts is the excessive waste i see everyday with my business with respect to the packaging that comes with clothing that we get to embroider.


ball caps - each cap in it's own plastic bag with a piece or cardboard in behind the front panel (even thought the panel is rock hard to begin with)
shirts, jackets - individually wrapped in plastic, lots of 'tissue paper' inside the garment
hoodies - individually wrapped in plastic if they come from "name brand" companies... under armour, adidas. etc.
hockey jerseys - individually wrapped in plastic with tons of other plastic pieces inside the jersey/down sleeves, etc.

one of my favourites lately is receiving cases of clothing... CLOTHING... with bubble wrap stuffed in the top of the box. did i mention it was clothing?? what's going to break??


it is not uncommon that the bottom 1/4 of each box is filled with useless packaging after we de-bag all the garments - such a waste

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

I'm fine with straw disappearing from restaurants as long as the Server knows that you don't handle the glass with your hands on the rim. That is so effing disgusting.

You don’t want to know about forks, knives, or spoons....

[burn_this_city]

Plastic lids on cups, non-recyclable amazon packaging, cut flowers shipped from europe.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

10% of our population.

Thanos does not approve. 50%!

[Nyah]

The plastic wrapper that is on each individual compostable K-Cup that I bought from Costco. It seems pretty counterproductive to put a plastic wrapper that can't be recycled on something that's been modified to be environmentally friendly.

[Nyah]

Oh, and plastic grocery bags seems like a no-brainer to do away with. The reusable ones are $1 and last forever.