Have you ever though how many disposable diapers are in land fills? Go back to paper straws then and cloth diapers!

You can get cloth diaper service for a similar amount of $ as paper diapers. I realize the convenience involved, but they are the worst.


Somehow I managed to get through two baby boys using cloth diapers. Back then ('70s) the paper diapers, which we were forced to use when traveling, ate holes in their bums. Had to smear Desitin eveywhere.


Yes to paper straws and cloth diapers.

Forced Plastic Use
 

I always as for at least "no straw for the water" if I forget to bring my own straw. For heaven sake, people can switch their straw back and forth if they have water and a drink they bought, if they just feel it is somehow icky to drink from the rim. But I agree, bring a straw or no straw are the best options.

The Publix at Mulberry often forces me to use plastic. I must remember to say "no plastic" or they will wrap multiple items, such as chicken, in a plastic bag before putting it in my cloth bag. Most offensive are what are usually older ******* who "know best'. Even when I ask for "no plastic", and make sure they heard, they ignore me and wrap items in plastic before putting them in my cloth bags. So I have to either watch them as they work, or ask them to allow me to bag my own. It seems odd to me - their generation grew up on "the customer is always right". If I have not had a leak in 60 years of shopping and think it unlikely that I will both have a leak and that fluids will penetrate past the shield at the bottom of plastic bags, that is my right.

The ******* also have an annoying way of carefully turning down the edges of my cloth bags before putting anything in them. This both takes up much of my time, and that of those in line, plus diminishes the capacity of the bag. Its totally unnecessary, the bag can easily be filled without turning down the edges. They frown and protest if I ask them not to turn down the edges of the cloth bags.

You know - they happily accommodate customers who insist on one, two or three items in each bag. Why can't they happily accommodate customers who do not want any plastic bags? Makes no sense.

Why would you ban straws? Ban the production of straws.

What good does it do to ask the server not to bring you a straw? The straw exists already.

If anything, have them make straws out of paper going forward. IMHO, I need a straw when I am at the movies for my large soda.

:thumbup:

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and no Lemon in the water. Do you think they wear gloves to cut the lemons?

The problem is the plastic, most of which comes from China. Straws used to be made from a paper product and some sort of recyclable material would be better for us all. I can't even remember when straws changed to all plastic. I am stopping the use of restaurant straws until they are environmentally friendly.

:thumbup:

McDonald's To Replace Plastic Straws With Paper In An Effort To Reduce Waste


Petition * Starbucks: Replace Plastic Straws with Biodegradable Paper Straws * Change.org


http://assets.change.org/photos/3/bz...jpg?1528327545

Do the same folks who eschew straws also use paper to pick up dog poop? Do they insist on reusable syringes at the doctor's office. Drink only out of glass bottles?

I think it is like the little old lady who peed in the sea. Every little bit helps.

:thumbup:

If less people ate at restaurants then there would be less waste. If they would stay home, then there would be less chance of them spreading disease.

The only drink where I do NOT use a straw is a beer.

straws
 

I prefer to use straws because who know what the server was handling prior to giving me my drink.

Go somewhere else. It's impossible to make EVERYONE happy. You do know that these meat containers leak? You should be thanking the clerk for putting the meat (especially chicken) in plastic bags before putting it in your cloth bag.

I think it is great to have the convenience of these stores so easily accessible. I hope that picky customers do not drive them away. They already have to pay more to do business here than outside of the Villages.

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:BigApplause:

Just remember, there is no P in Sumter.

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Virtually all the plastic in that floating island in the Pacific is from Asia.

I use biodegradable poop bags. They cost an arm and a leg. I try to keep Crosby constipated. (KIDDING, but not about the cost of the bags.)



I use glass bottles or metal reusable water bottles. I switched over to a selzer machine because I was drinking a liter bottle of selzer a day.



Isn't there some health-related issue with reusable syringes? I don't think the public can control that particular usage.


And you're right, every little bit helps. I don't buy the "only do the most important" thing somebody mentioned above.


As far as "the straw already exists" comment, for each person that refuses to use an existing straw, that's one less straw to be thrown out. Eventually they'll stop being made.

Amen !!!!

While I am all about saving the environment, My problem with no straws is more of a personal health issue. Using a straw, I avoid any germs or bacteria that have been placed on the glass during handling. So why don't restaurants use paper straws? These paper straws could be recycled with the rest of the restaurants paper.

May be we have solved a big problem here in the villages as to why the ER is so full of people and 8 hour wait to see a doctor and no rooms in the hospital. People here just dont care about the sticky salt and pepper shakers at the table or putting their lips on a glass that you have no knowledge how clean it is. After sneezing at the table covering your mouth with a tissue then salt and peppering your food with shakers that havent been wiped down or having something like c-diff (alot of that here in TV) which can stay on hard surfaces for 3 months and very contagious. So to you people that think you cant catch something from a simple thing like going out to eat don't complain about your long wait at the ER or your local walk in clinic.

Other than cooking oil, I do not believe that MOST restaurants recycle anything - too costly for them.

Restaurants weigh costs, benefits of recycling | Nation's Restaurant News

FredF

Amazon has metal straws that can be carried with you when dining out! Non breakable and YOU know how clean they are! Great job folks.

You do not want to think about it
 

A lot of paper is recycled. The brown paper napkins-hum
were they diapers in the past?

Not sure I really want to know.

I find it sadly amusing. We are forced to BUY paper bags to have the trash company collect our recycle-able lawn waste.
In the past, we used to use corrugated boxes. They too, made from paper-plant material-will also decompose.

Oh. on the trash subject, you/we need to buy plastic bags for your trash. Every solution has it's negatives

Straws!!
 

Thank You Sunglow for your kind and compassionate post abt reducing the use of plastic straws.

To some of those who responded: this post was not abt sanitation or hygiene but an effort to enlighten us to take action to protect the environment, ecological balance and reduce waste and pollution.

I hope all will think abt the importance of Sunlow's post and what we can do to make a difference. Thank you

Simply burn garbage in a waste to energy clean inciinerator like just about all of Europe has been doing.

This way you wont have to worry about straws!

Justifying straws
 

Perhaps you did not see this thread as being about sanitation, but that was a logical path for the discussion because it explained the utility of the straws. It justified the use of straws.

I absolutely intend to continue to use straws.

And so will about 7 billion other people on the planet

There is no question there is a problem, but we cannot solve it all by ourselves.

The idea of straws helping end the pollution problem is noble but it seems bottled water bottles are a bigger pollutant

I think the use of straws is fine for sanitation purposes, as long as they're paper. Or carry your own reusable straw if your immune-compromised or worried about germs.


The thread was about plastic straws ending up in landfills and polluting the oceans, rivers, and streams. The solution is paper straws. Also, where I live part of the year, straws are never used. You get your drink of choice in a glass, no straw. I don't see people getting sick from it. If we can handle paper money and public doorknobs...

Ohiobuckeye
 

I agree people are getting excited about everything. If they do this then it'll be something else. But we do have the technology to make a lot of things degradable!

Just wanted to thank you for this post!! If you absolutely need to use straws I recommend ordering the silicone ones! Also, wondering if you have tried the shampoo bars? One bar is like 3 bottles of shampoo. No plastic to dispose of!!

Even safer to buy your own reusable, then the only person touching even the straw is you!! Silicone ones are best in my opinion. Amazon has a bunch!

On the plastic straw front, as of July 1, Seattle has banned the use of plastic straws. Starbucks is phasing out the use of plastic straws by 2020. Hyatt Hotels are phasing out plastic straws. McDonalds is investigating the phase out for US locations and is switching to paper straws in the UK and Ireland in September.

So progress is being made to end the use of plastic straws, but it will take time.

I think "they" are grasping at straws.

Us old-er people have been taught to repurpose, reuse and not waste. And to save our money, and try to prevent wasteful spending wherever we can. Turn off lights, eat our leftovers and take good care of our possessions.


There are all kinds of things we can do. But we cannot stop the other parts of the world from wasting and polluting. It is kind of like pithing into the wind.

Up to 95 per cent of plastic polluting the world's oceans pours in from just ten rivers, according to new research.

The top 10 rivers - eight of which are in Asia - accounted for so much plastic because of the mismanagement of waste.

Attachment 75642

95% of plastic in oceans comes from just ten rivers | Daily Mail Online

Let talk about the elephant in the room! The 6 and 8 pack soda plastic retainers that strangle and kill wildlife on land and the ocean. IMO no need for plastic carton while recycle cardboard boxes can be used like with aluminum cans packaged in quantities over 6. IMO that's bigger problem than straws. It's all about the dollar/CEOS can save on labor and materials for their bonus. It probably saved 2 cents to make in plastic over paper plus the factory and besides some would be against that cause of the use of wood pulp which is probably waste wood from lumber?

But yet I don't see any body complaining about the 1000's and 1000's of huge plastic bags that we are required to put our garbage in each week. Compare that to a little plastic straw, really? I agree that any plastic discarded in any environment is not good. I have no problem with paper straws. But when you add up the plastic bags used by all the home owners here in The Villages twice a week, it kinda dwarfs the straw problem.