AnonymousBy Veronica Aguirre-Dutton
Plastic straws are wreaking havoc on our environment and they need to be banned immediately in Santa Barbara County.
In order for us to take care of our beautiful city beaches, and make choices that take care of our planet, we, as a strong community and county, should ban the single-use plastic straw. Many cities have already ditched the plastic straw, like Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo. The decision to ban plastic straws in Santa Barbara County will profoundly impact our oceans health, and our health in a positive forward step to making more eco-conscious everyday choices. Plastic straws are made from polypropylene which comes from petroleum, they are not recycled, and they do not biodegrade. They are piling up! Due to its single-use purpose by the consumer, the straw is trashed within approximately 20 minutes. Every day, 500 million straws are thrown away.
This enormous amount of straws could wrap the circumference of the earth 2.5 times. Straws are among the top ten of the most hazardous plastics used by Americans. By 2050, it’s been reported that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. Available on the market for purchase are metal straws, glass straws, recyclable paper straws, bamboo straws and even edible straws. Restaurants can provide a reusable straw by request or switch to paper straws which are the fantastic alternative. Some restaurants who have already made the switch are proudly reporting a decrease in cost due to now stocking the paper straw and only supplying a straw upon customer request. But what about my orange mocha frappuccino? Coffee houses offer mug discounts when you bring your own!
There are several reusable bottle companies or even the classic mason jar that sell a reusable cup that includes a metal lid and metal straw, thus making it ideal for the coffee drink to be entirely waste free and at a lower cost. As for social drinks at the local bar, maybe we shouldn’t be sucking down the alcohol that quickly and instead enjoying the savory sip of the cocktail. The options to replacing the plastic straw are endless; and, there are simply no excuses to make this important shift for each different kind of business that sells drinks in our county. Please go to change.org, search “Ban Plastic straws in Santa Barbara County” and please sign the petition.
Do you have an opinion on something local? Share it with us at ed@edhat.com. The views and opinions expressed in Op-Ed articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of edhat.
You see metal straws all over Argentina. Everyone uses them to drink mate (a hot tea) which is almost like their national beverage. When it comes to human-scale endeavors, what seems trivial on a personal level can have global impact. This is interesting enough where I’ll read up on it.
We had paper straws when I was a kid. They were fine. Let’s go back to those while we wait for an entrepreneur to develop good edible straws.
Easy problem. Heavier fines and jail sentences, deportations, big R&D program for replacements, recycling with a deposit program, background checks for licensed users, education program starting in preschools and maybe straw monitors in the old-folks facilities. We could mandate tethers, either to the cup or bottle or to discrete piercings of the users’ lips.
I’m sorry but I haven’t heard of any mass murders by straws yet. We have much bigger issues like mental health that should be of greater concern to anyone at this time. And why the hell would you want the servers to be punished and not he makers of the straw? I will not be signing your petition.
Never mind plastic straws, the real menace is crockery and china dishes. Every day, dishes are accidentally broken, causing shards of sharp material to fly through the air and land on the floor, where feet and hands can be severely lacerated in the ensuing confusion. This has been going on for centuries. We must stop the carnage. BAN ALL CHINA AND CROCKERY DISHES NOW!! There is no reason that prepared food can’t be brought to the table in large communal (metal) vessels, into which diners can simply dip their hands to retrieve the food—kind of like how Helen Keller showed you in the early part of “The Miracle Worker.” (“It’s WATER, Helen.”) Plus, that’s sure to liven up any dinner party. Please make your views on this known to your local legislators. (Are you listening, Hannabeth and Salud?) Thank you.
Look on Change.org. All Veronica asks is for the county supervisors to investigate banning plastic straws. Not asking for punishment, penalties or anything like that.
People fighting to end the use of straws because they are so harmful to the environment but I’m sure they ALL drive a car. Ugh.
I don’t use straws…
For the amount of money the county supervisors would spend to create a commission to investigate the option of banning straws ….. they could just follow the money example of shopping bags. If I have to pay a dime for a bag I rather quickly train myself to bring a reusable bag. Paper straw free, plastic a dime, problem solved.
Ban people from having kids…
Big whup.
Ban the plastic straws and provide paper ones like many countries. Just don’t tell Trump the scorched Earth President! He’d likely start more oil drilling & fracking to make more plastic straws to sell the Russians.
Veronica, please tell me if any of the following is incorrect and this is really what you are pushing:……………….”A group of California legislators wants to punish waiters who offer “unsolicited” plastic straws to customers with a six-month jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.
Democratic California Assembly Majority Floor Leader Ian Calderon has introduced a bill that could put waiters in jail for offering their patrons a plastic straw without them asking for one. /////Veronica….six months in jail? Is this what you want? Really? Six months in jail?
Please. Enough of the bans. It’s over the top
Ban Tabarbara CA. Home of the ban!
Is this really a problem worthy of legislation? I dont think so. We need our politicians to focus on the big financial issues like pension reform and tax reduction, not small, petty bans on things that really dont impact us all that much. I appreciate the OP’s passion, but maybe she should focus on selling a better straw instead of banning them… Or stop eating fast food.
I use a straw because I can’t stand the taste of yucky water the restaurants use to clean their glasses.
Has anyone noticed that now that we buy plastic bags, instead of the free ones we used to get, they are four to five times thicker than the old free ones?
What about all the people that need them for medical reasons. Fractured jaw that’s wired shut, so they use a straw. Or wisdom teeth extract from all kids, they need to use straws. This is such a ridiculous request, it’s like saying, let’s ban toilet paper, all paper particles end up in the ocean, Yada, yada, yada.
Before plastic straws we had paper ones. Good after dental work, during any sickness, etc.
Your city council has fooled you into believing that this is an important issue, one of many useless items they waste time on while ignoring the real problems of the city. Things like plastic bags, leaf blowers, food trucks and policing the “urban forest” are trivial but keep us arguing over the minutiae while the big problems are never solved. Imagine if they focused on the important issues like transients, homelessness, water, crime, pensions, and finances with the intentions of actually doing something instead of endless studies and kicking the can down the road.
Veronica: Thank you for posting this. I pick up plastic straws off our local beaches. I pick up plastic straws at our local parks. When plastic straws find their way to the ocean, they not only add to the problem of plastics in our oceans, they create problems for sea turtles and other marine creatures.
REX. Sometimes you post on Edhat and I read your post and nod and say to myself, “Yes. Rex gets it.” Your post here, however, makes me think of what my dear old Mum used to say of such diatribes: “He’s really showing his ass, isn’t he.”
Plastic, ALL plastic, is harmful to the environment. We really shouldn’t use straws. I have a metal straw that I carry with me, but even though I’m a very dilligent environmentalist and I care deeply about our world, I forget. The best solution would be a switch to paper straws. Easy Peasy. Problem solved.
One of the big issues with going back to paper straws is that using them to drink milkshakes, malts, and frozen margaritas, is impossible. We go to the Foster’s Freeze in Carpinteria a couple times a week to have a pineapple milkshake. It’s difficult enough to drink these shake with a plastic straw, but there’s no way using a paper straw. The paper straw, as many of you will recall, will basically “pucker” under the suction, rendering the tubular implement useless. People just need to be educated about recycling straws, where they eventually find their way to the sea, where they can be ingested by a variety of wildlife. That is the easiest solution in my book.