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An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

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Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#21

Post by mike_d »

wildmanx wrote: post #14

> And anything that goes into the landfill does not get into the ocean. That's just not true. All plastic eventually ends up in the ocean. The "it's all decomposed in 50 years" is a myth. There was a pretty convincing article about all of that here on HN a while back.

How would a plastic straw in a sealed landfill in Kansas ever make it to the ocean? Have you ever been to a modern landfill?

Plastics are not evil creatures that grow legs and night and burrow out looking for the closest body of water.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#22

Post by reactspa »

Can someone please clarify for me why some communities in the West Coast of USA banned plastic straws but not plastic "take-away" cups (that are also used only once)? I want to understand the logic that was used to do this. I've googled around for this, and while people like pmarca mock it, I've never found the original reasoning and logic for this action.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#23

Post by drewg123 »

munificent wrote: post #16
drewg123 wrote: post #6

If you want to save the oceans, ban plastic fishing equipment, as nets and other gear is the biggest plastic polluter in the oceans: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/dumped-f...

This article is a great example of how poor use of math can do a disservice to the public. The article says: > Lost and abandoned fishing gear which is deadly to marine life makes up the majority of large plastic pollution in the oceans This is one of those statistics that shouldn't even pass the sniff test. Think about all of the millions of ways that humans use plastic across every single industry, job, and area of…

It seems like the study folks are quoting is a peer reviewed article in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w?fbclid=Iw...

It states "Over three-quarters of the GPGP mass was carried by debris larger than 5 cm and at least 46% was comprised of fishing nets."

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#24

Post by quietbritishjim »

wildmanx wrote: post #14

> And anything that goes into the landfill does not get into the ocean. That's just not true. All plastic eventually ends up in the ocean. The "it's all decomposed in 50 years" is a myth. There was a pretty convincing article about all of that here on HN a while back.

What would 50 years matter? Fossils are found in ground that are 10s of millions of years old. (I suspect the time until a landfill is disturbed is likely to be somewhere between those two extremes, but who knows.)

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#25

Post by haunter »

Went to McDonald's today to get a milkshake, they only have paper straws here since 2019 iirc. Anyways the milkshake itself doesn't but I assume our saliva "softens" the paper straw so much that after a couple of minutes I had to turn the straw around to use the other end otherwise I just can't get the milkshake through lol if that make sense. I'm thinking about getting 2 straws next time.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#26

Post by gumby »

MarkLowenstein wrote: post #2

It's a deceptive title, but it comes straight from the blog post. It's not going to teach you about straws (thankfully...are straws that interesting?). It tells you about the sources of plastic waste in general and justifies the most efficacious solutions to avoid plastic pollution. It is a short article focused on common sense, appropriate pictures, and well-chosen data.

> thankfully...are straws that interesting?

I clicked on the link specifically because I thought it might be about straws themselves. I agree straws don’t sound that interesting but I don’t really know much about them and for all I know there’s something interesting about their manufacture, perhaps the difference in sizes, or something else.

OTOH I am already well aware of plastic pollution problem and straws’ relative place in it (both perceived and real).

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#27

Post by moralestapia »

Weird, first it says,

"[...] zero plastic thrown in a garbage can in the United States enters the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre", in bold letters.

But then later in the article, it admits that about 50% of US plastics (it is unclear whether is all of them or only the ones meant to be recycled) were shipped "to Indonesia and Vietnam, which proceeded to improperly dump over 80% of it."

So, it does go into the ocean in the end, whether the fault of the US or any other country, the point is that your plastic straw has a big chance of finding its way to the sea.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#28

Post by elliekelly »

reactspa wrote: post #22

Can someone please clarify for me why some communities in the West Coast of USA banned plastic straws but not plastic "take-away" cups (that are also used only once)? I want to understand the logic that was used to do this. I've googled around for this, and while people like pmarca mock it, I've never found the original reasoning and logic for this action.

I have no answer but every time I get a cold drink at starbucks and see the new “no straw” lid (that seems to use as much or more plastic as the old lid + straw) I have the same question. It seems more about the “no straw” trend than about actually reducing plastic.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#29

Post by dmd »

moralestapia wrote: post #27

Weird, first it says, "[...] zero plastic thrown in a garbage can in the United States enters the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre", in bold letters. But then later in the article, it admits that about 50% of US plastics (it is unclear whether is all of them or only the ones meant to be recycled) were shipped "to Indonesia and Vietnam, which proceeded to improperly dump over 80% of it." So, it does go into the ocean in…

I think you rather missed the point of the article.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#30

Post by animal_spirits »

moralestapia wrote: post #27

Weird, first it says, "[...] zero plastic thrown in a garbage can in the United States enters the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre", in bold letters. But then later in the article, it admits that about 50% of US plastics (it is unclear whether is all of them or only the ones meant to be recycled) were shipped "to Indonesia and Vietnam, which proceeded to improperly dump over 80% of it." So, it does go into the ocean in…

Garbage can -> landfill

recycling can -> overseas countries -> ocean

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