Very happy to learn about this effort and support Strawless September. Please provide information about where to get the alternatives (bamboo straw, etc) mentioned in article. I also contacted local restaurant about this issue. In a nice restaurant with cloth napkins and glassware they put a plastic straw in every water glass! So unnecessary! Glad to support any initiative that helps us reduce our plastic consumption.

Now that China does not accept our plastic waste, there is no recycling. The government programs are merely collection, transportation and storage businesses for which we pay. It hardly makes ecological sense to pack trash to send to China on a ship and then have it come back on another ship as car bumpers, or whatever.
Our family now uses Gatorade powder to avoid the various fees, ie CRV and sugar tax. These fees are not realistically recoverable. Perhaps plastic will be taxed out of existence.
Several years ago, it was suggested that the plastic carriers for six cans of pop be cut up so as not to strangle sea life.
Hospitals should be exempt.
Happy Labor Day!

I’m more worried about the RV’s with AR-15s in them and the spray-painted concerted school bus/meth labs than I am about the straws.

Ridiculous. Nutjobs hopping onto whatever the latest fad is, without really thinking about the cost/benefit.

Just request no straw if you don't like it, but don't push your policies on everyone else.

How about banning international air travel? Buying products from China? These are much worse contributors to environmental damage than a straw, which can easily be properly disposed.

I'll have to agree with Nick, but only with the content. The tone was unnecessarily sarcastic. we need to be a lot more civil if we're to think through complex problems together. Those "nut jobs" are your neighbors, and potential allies in addressing climate change.

Straws are a good start, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking we're taking "bold action" by banning this most visible use of plastics. How about all the single use plastic clam shell packaging? How about the acres of plastic wrapped around shipping pallets? How about plastic shopping bags? And how about...?

We're going to have to dig a lot deeper to get out of this hole.

Americans supposedly use 500 million plastic straws every day—or not.
It turns out that the math behind that figure was done by a nine-year-old in 2011.
But, let's say—for the sake of argument—that as many as 500 million plastic straws are used in the US every day.
That would be about 182.5 billion straws a year.

Pretty soon I'll have to 'concealed carry' my plastic straws!

Don't you just love it when our resident libertarians show up on these boards?

It's always the same song from them -- "So what if it affects everyone else? I don't care, I don't care, I don't care...!"

Where did that 500 million a day originate? There are only 330 million people in the country. Who is using 3+ straws a day to make up for my zero straws? Smells incorrect.

There are at least two intertwined issues here. One is the specific risk discarded straws pose in the ocean. Another is the general problem of continually producing single-use plastic items and then disposing of them. The first problem could be solved by simply not putting straws or other trash in the ocean. Instead put them in landfills. Nearly all land-based Americans already do this. The ocean trash comes from ships at sea (e.g. cruise ships, Navy ships, commercial shipping) and cash-strapped smaller countries using the ocean as an inexpensive dump. No matter what we do without here in the US, it will not affect those sources.

The larger issue of using oil to produce disposable goods is a tough problem. I am reminded, however, of an observation I read many years ago that we would come to regret burning up our petroleum as a fuel instead of saving it to use as a lubricant and as the feedstock for numerous manufactured items, including plastics, pharmaceuticals, and a myriad of other chemicals used in everyday life and in industry.

For my Frap, the whole cup is plastic. Should Starbucks and other places serving coffee just use cardboard cups - even for cold drinks? As to bringing my own non-plastic straw, I guess I could check a head shop. Or maybe I should quit drinking coffee.

And of course no one questions the premie of the story. Was this in fact the contents of the bird or a set up. And if true ( 2 liters ?) about the contents, any actual evidence this is what the bird died off. Great vetting by our reporter.

And of course no one questions the premie of the story. Was this in fact the contents of the bird or a set up. And if true ( 2 liters ?) about the contents, any actual evidence this is what the bird died off. Great vetting by our reporter.

Of course all of this should be blamed on straws

From the Smithsonian

The effects of plastic on the chicks hasn't been scientifically proven. It’s probable that it injures or kills the birds by cutting their stomachs or taking up space, making them feel “full” when they are starving. On Midway Atoll, many albatross chicks are killed by lead poisoning, making it hard to separate the effects of the plastic from that of the lead.

Any ban on plastic straws must account for the needs of bubble tea establishments. Paper straws big enough to drink boba are not available at reasonable prices.

"Straws are also among the top 10 items found in beach cleanups around the world."
That's why it is reasonable to expect reducing straw use will have a positive impact.
Yes there are other sources of pollution, but you prioritize based on what can have a significant impact and what is possible to achieve.

I will start worrying about birds and plastic straws when there are no homeless people sleeping on our streets, no children going to bed hungry every night, no more cancer, heart disease, old people eating dog food because they can't afford decent food, people going without their medication because they can't afford it, abused women and children, DUI killers. Is that enough for you? Priorities people! Get your head in the game; there are a lot bigger issues right in your own back yard.

Many of us can actually deal with more than one thing at at time, but more power to anyone working to fight any of our societal ills, big or small.

Whelp - "Having caught wind of various movements throughout the nation, including Strawless In Seattle, Wilmoth decided to "go ahead and take the plunge," asking Castro Street restaurants to stop providing straws to customers during the month of September." Did she ever ask them if they would give some food and/or water to any of the homeless people in the area? Doesn't sound to me like she "can actually deal with more than one thing at a time".

And yet I really think we'll all get through it with minimal if any real impact to our our daily lives, assuming you're not int the plastic straw industry(jk).

Seriously, I see this having zero impact to me and registering an unwavering, dead flat 0.00 on my "Could-give-a-care-ometer"

"Doesn't sound to me like she "can actually deal with more than one thing at a time"."

That's because you only imagined in your mind the answer to the question you posed.! LOL. C'mon!
No, really, it'll all be OK. You'll see.