Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

hwfo.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 252 posts

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#41

Post by MerelyMortal »

McNutty wrote: post #35
haunter wrote: post #25

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.

Personally I just drink from the cup. I never use a straw when drinking at home, I don't magically require one when not at home.

Personally, part of the enjoyable expereince of drinking a milkshake is drinking it through a straw. Drinking a milkshake like a regular drink gives me no pleasure.

I suppose if they ever went to paper straws where I live, i would just have to order a personal metal reusable straw.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#42

Post by chillingeffect »

jjcm wrote: post #15
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...

What material would you recommend instead?

Also: we don't need to eat seafood.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#43

Post by MerelyMortal »

elliekelly wrote: post #28
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.

My pet theory is that the 'no plastic straw' movement was started by someone as a sick joke to see how far people would take a silly idea to feel like they are helping save the environment.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#44

Post by moralestapia »

mike_d wrote: post #36
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…

> your plastic straw has a big chance of finding its way to the sea IF you put it in a recycling bin. Here is a quick breakdown: - Black bin (trash): Goes to a landfill where it is regulated by the EPA and stored in containment and the off-gas is harvested for energy - Blue bin (recycling): Gets shipped by boat across an ocean to a third world country where it is dumped because that is the most profitable thing to do…

It's not that easy,

Trash goes into what is called, waste transfer stations, see [1], where there's an effort to salvage recyclables from regular trash as well, what you do with the black/blue bins is basically helping them do their work (and this is good).

Let's say then, that all this plastic goes into the "plastic that could be recycled" bin, of which we actually DO recycle 3.1 million tons of it (as stated in the article) out of 35.7 million tons (total).

But then it goes to say "We used to send half of this to China until they banned it [...]", and it is not clear either this is half of the recycled chunk, or the total amount of plastic that gets thrown away. It wouldn't make sense for it to be the recycled chunk, as ... we are recycling it, right? But then, it could, maybe, as it could be sent to those countries for "recycling" and they then "improperly dump it" (as also stated in the article).

1: https://www.dumpsters.com/blog/waste-management-transfer-sta...

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#45

Post by haunter »

McNutty wrote: post #35
haunter wrote: post #25

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.

Personally I just drink from the cup. I never use a straw when drinking at home, I don't magically require one when not at home.

I'm just thinking about to keep a reusable metal straw around. Cleaning is a pita, you need the special brush but honestly it's still better than the paper straws. But maybe it's just McDonald's? Maybe the other fast food joints use something else, like a different kind of paper

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#46

Post by archarios »

dylan604 wrote: post #19

"Globally: One and only one solution exists to curbing the deluge of oceanic plastics. The international community has to get the Philippines and similar countries enough money to have proper garbage collection." What would this look like? I'm guessing it's more than just giving them a fleet of trucks and landfill equipment.

Ideally, we would have funding for chemical recycling of plastics which would make a circular plastic economy. I don't know if this is actually a viable solution at scale but it's the dream.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#47

Post by ZeroGravitas »

legitster wrote: post #34

Plastic gets a bad wrap. But it's a pretty dang efficient material. It takes so little energy and material to make something very functional and resilient. I know that CO2 analyses of the replacements to plastic bags and straws has not been very kind to them. I find it commendable to encourage people to consumer less stuff, but the war on plastic straws has been a huge step back - it's done relatively little to actua…

Plastics are cool materials but at the moment they're mostly made from fossil fuels so you're funding some really bad people by using them.

They'll only use that money to convince gullible people that climate change isn't happening, that every government regulation will magically have exactly the opposite impact, that solar and wind power are scams, that recycling is bad for the planet and that science and democracy have been taken over by idiot hippies that will kill us all because they stupidly hate fossil fuels for no reason.

That's a heavy price to pay.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#48

Post by tptacek »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #47
legitster wrote: post #34

Plastic gets a bad wrap. But it's a pretty dang efficient material. It takes so little energy and material to make something very functional and resilient. I know that CO2 analyses of the replacements to plastic bags and straws has not been very kind to them. I find it commendable to encourage people to consumer less stuff, but the war on plastic straws has been a huge step back - it's done relatively little to actua…

Plastics are cool materials but at the moment they're mostly made from fossil fuels so you're funding some really bad people by using them. They'll only use that money to convince gullible people that climate change isn't happening, that every government regulation will magically have exactly the opposite impact, that solar and wind power are scams, that recycling is bad for the planet and that science and democracy…

It is probably not reasonable to select materials with worse ecological footprints than plastic purely out of concern for what people in the plastics supply chain are going to say about climate change.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#49

Post by buildsjets »

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.

Plastic straws were banned because a video of a sea turtle with a straw stuck in it's nostril went viral and the decision was made based on emotions, not analysis. If it had been a plastic cup stuck on it's head, they would have banned cups instead. Too bad it didn't get a plastic tampon applicator stuck in it's nose, because I sure see a ton of them washed up on the beach, seems like a prime target to eliminate.

Re: An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)

#50

Post by munificent »

McNutty wrote: post #38
munificent wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think you've overlooked the keyword large in the opening statement

I did notice that but the linked report does not define "large" at all as far as I can tell.
Post reply on HN