Straws are Disappearing - What Else Should We Ditch?

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I got screwed on that in Vancouver. They used linguine for coffee stir sticks. You know what isn't cool? Not telling people that, when 1 in 125 are celiac. Very clever guys, you replaced plastic with making people sick.

This could work well with the plan to scrap 10% of the population. Can they grow long straw-shaped peanuts?

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I was just thinking; with a bit of ingenuity, you could probably just design a cup with an integrated straw. Like you'd drinking from the spout of a tea pot - maybe more stereamlined though.

Something like this with the "straw" down the side?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by zamler

I also do my best to make sure everything I use is processed properly but in the back of my mind I always wonder how much energy is used to recycle and repurpose everything or even if it is recycled at all.

Also is it really that hard to make packaging and containers out of materials that biodegrade?

I got at this in my previous post, but "recycling" can often cause more harm than good. There are quotas in place that force companies to recycle. The excess is often put into landfills or sold to China.

We're at a point now, where recycling is so ubiquitous that anything you put into a blue bin falls into that excess category. People also have a tendency to over-recycle, which also increases energy expenditure, as the recycling people have to sort out the garbage.

I also can't imagine how it was good for the environment to send our plastics to China for recycling Surely the shipping costs alone would have offset any positive effects. China, which used to take half of the worlds recyclables, has stopped taking recyclables, and now the stuff is piling up even more:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/g...nada-1.4586602

I believe this is not true of metal products. Aluminium and tin have value, which means they always get recycled. Plastic and paper, not so much.

[Matata]

Plastic can only be recycled a few times before it becomes waste. Throwing out materials that can naturally breakdown is better than adding more plastics to the world .

I'm not sold on recycling in Calgary as being eco-friendly, largely due to our lack of facilities, remote location and experience in handling recyclables, I think of it more as a step in the right direction. There's probably a few things we do well, but I don't think there is much difference in eco-harm between recycling and just throwing things out as is. Reduce and Re-use are much more effective.

[Ozy_Flame]

Straws are a funny thing. We stick them in our mouths, much like forks or spoons, but they are never really seen by the same token. By and large it would be weird to wash a straw and reuse it, unlike cutlery (unless the straw is part of your glass ensemble).

I can't see why straws can't continue to be used if they were reusable in nature. The concept is no less obsolete.

[habernac]

We've got metal straws we bought for the kids. Run them through the dishwasher.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by curves2000

I sometimes wonder if we, as a society and citizens living in one of the richest countries in the world understand the size and scope of our environmental problems?? The problem is far more reaching than some of these minor modifications we make, sometimes with unintended environmental disaster consequences.

Straws, paper, taking 5 minute showers vs 10-minute ones, "Earth Hour" and a lot of factors aren't putting even the slighest dent in our oil and energy consumption. We are or are very close to 100 million barrels of oil per day in consumption, that is over 1100 barrels a second, think about that figure for a moment?

The level of changes to everything that needs to happen to everybody across the board is staggering we are all being honest, and political will and environmental groups aren't being honest either.

I personally have friends of mine who are patting themselves on the back for refusing to use straws, taking 5-minute showers, recycling everything, even things that aren't recyclable etc. The newest piece of BS I heard was their contribution to the environment by refusing to buy Costco branded paper towels and toilet paper as it is double packaged.

Starbucks is replacing their straws in the near future with what I believe is a "sippy cup" style lid for their beverages, I wouldn't be surprised if this lid contained MORE plastic than a regular lid and straw. People aren't going to try drinking expensive drinks without lids and straws, spilling them all over their cars, desks and clothing for the sake of the environment.

There is a lot of smoke and mirrors with everybody and everything when it comes to these topics!

Well nobody sets out to recycle things that aren't recyclable. And I don't think people should pat themselves on the back too hard for meaningless changes, but I don't understand how you get to the conclusion that all efforts are wasted.

I think changing the mindset of younger generations will lead to the grander societal changes we require. I'm 42 - I was a kid when the push to reuse, reduce and recycle was really picking up steam. Those attitudes carried with me as an adult and now as a business owner I have put in a recycling program to manage the dumpster loads full of cardboard we generate that used to go straight to the landfill before I came along. The amount of waste businesses generate puts the individual to shame; however, individual business owners with a waste-reduction ethos borrowed/learned from their personal lives can make actual meaningful differences individuals cannot.

It's not about straws. It's about looking at waste with a critical eye in our personal lives and professional lives. Beyond the 3 R's, there is also a fourth, which is Refuse. Refuse the waste. Restaurants refusing to include straws with every drink are reminding us to look critically at simple things to make things better.

You pissing on your friends for the relatively meaningless things they do misses the larger point behind teaching individuals to act more responsibly. As a collective we can make positive differences. If enough people opted out of buying Costco products because of the additional packaging, Costco will sell products with less packaging. That's a good thing.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Those attitudes carried with me as an adult and now as a business owner I have put in a recycling program to manage the dumpster loads full of cardboard we generate that used to go straight to the landfill before I came along.

But is this actually better? I'm not being glib I want to know the pros and cons in detail. And not with just cardboard with everything we toss in our bins what is the cradle to grave to cradle footprint?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by zamler

But is this actually better? I'm not being glib I want to know the pros and cons in detail. And not with just cardboard with everything we toss in our bins what is the cradle to grave to cradle footprint?

I don't take that as glib - it's a fair question. I mean, I don't have the time or the interest to research exactly what happens, but I know the cardboard is a necessary part of my raw materials delivery (it makes up the structure of the materials), so I can't eliminate it. When I first came to this company it was just thrown into the dumpster. Now, I have a separate dumpster that all the cardboard goes into and it is apparently recycled with other paper products. I've actually been to Capital Paper Recycling where it goes, so I've seen with my own eyes it going up some weird conveyor thing and into a hopper of some sort.

Beyond that, I don't know, but I do kind of take it on faith that's better for the earth than going to the dump. Maybe that's wrong? If it is, let me know and I'll stop and save myself some money. I'm not being compensated in any way for this - I pay ~$90 a month for the service because I want to run a responsible business. If it's pointless, though, I'll save the money and put that money in my pocket.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by 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.

this a million times over.

[Sliver]

I think in general if you are reducing, reusing and recycling things that you could opt to do none of the Rs with, then you are helping. Moving forward with good intentions and some effort to doing the right thing is better than doing nothing and just belittling the people that are trying to help.

A better mindset than curves2000's poor attitude on this topic would be to come up with some better ideas for her friends. Like, if they're having conversations about recycling, not using straws, choosing suppliers of their everyday products that use less waste, it's crazy for me to think her reaction is to roll her eyes at how dumb they are. If you have some more meaningful ways for them to help the environment more, you're sitting there having a discussion with people that are clearly interested in helping out. Share your great ideas for them to help more instead of disparaging their efforts to make a difference.

[Travis Munroe]

I am not sure I could reuse a straw over and over. Something about not believing the inside of the straw is being cleaned as well as a fork or spoon which has it's entire surface area available for soap, hot water, heat, etc to hit. Who knows, this might make no sense at all but its stuck in my head.

[troutman]

Plastic Bags can be recycled:

http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages/...u-Recycle.aspx

Bundle all stretchy plastic bags into a single plastic bag and tied closed before recycling. Acceptable bags include:

• Grocery bags
• Shopping bags
• Sandwich/lunch bags
• ​Resealable/Ziploc bags
• Freezer bags
• Bread bags
• Dry cleaner bags
• Plastic film wrap
• Bubble wrap

Recycling Tip:
If plastic stretches (like a grocery bag) it's recyclable; if it crinkles (like a cereal box liner), it's not recyclable.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Travis Munroe

I am not sure I could reuse a straw over and over. Something about not believing the inside of the straw is being cleaned as well as a fork or spoon which has it's entire surface area available for soap, hot water, heat, etc to hit. Who knows, this might make no sense at all but its stuck in my head.

This is my issue. We have some straws that are reusable and run through the dishwasher. There is no chance I will ever use them though because that's disgusting.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by habernac

We've got metal straws we bought for the kids. Run them through the dishwasher.

same here.
also...

https://qz.com/quartzy/1324163/ban-p...se-paper-ones/

as we face a future without plastic straws, one thing is certain: We must not allow the chaos and uncertainty of these times to give rise to an age of paper straws.

[Locke]

Yes, but the sooner we exhaust this orb's resources the sooner we can get on with the business of colonizing Mars.

[Sliver]

Maybe we need to come up with a new way to drink entirely. I, too, think re-using a straw is fataing disgusting.

I have a chug spout on my Contigo water bottle I use as my daily water bottle and bedside water bottle. I never touch my lips to it, though, because I don't always wash it daily. Maybe when we go to a bar or whatever it could be come normal to have a lid with a hole in the top and you just hover lip over it and pour the drink in versus using a straw? IDK, but I think the point of straws disappearing is more that they're unnecessary in a lot of situations, anyway. Driving? Yeah, give me a straw. Sitting in BPs with a Coke? Don't need one in the same way I don't need a straw if I order a pint of beer, which obviously has never come with a straw.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by troutman

Plastic Bags can be recycled:

Anything can be recycled that is not the point, it is how much energy and overall consequential footprint used to do it.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I got screwed on that in Vancouver. They used linguine for coffee stir sticks. You know what isn't cool? Not telling people that, when 1 in 125 are celiac. Very clever guys, you replaced plastic with making people sick.

That’s just natural selection. Celiacs are on borrowed time.

[REDVAN]

A&W gave me a paper straw yesterday... it was weird