Plastic Straw Ban

[August West]

I won't miss them. Next thing to go is plastic water bottles. Or at least raise the deposit price so people have to recycle. Be smart.

[mrb]

The UK has been going through this for a while. I've recently been to 2 restaurants and been told that they don't have plastic straws and don't have an alternative! Ask how someone like me, paralysed from the neck down is meant to drink during a meal given that I have a trache and struggle to swallow at times is meant to do to be met by a blank expression. I just tell them it'll not put other diners off if I choke on food. We do always take a metal straw but it can be difficult to get it properly cleaned if you have a few coffees whilst out.

[gjnl]

The UK has been going through this for a while. I've recently been to 2 restaurants and been told that they don't have plastic straws and don't have an alternative! Ask how someone like me, paralysed from the neck down is meant to drink during a meal given that I have a trache and struggle to swallow at times is meant to do to be met by a blank expression. I just tell them it'll not put other diners off if I choke on food. We do always take a metal straw but it can be difficult to get it properly cleaned if you have a few coffees whilst out.

A straw cleaner brush may help.

[Tman9513]

These new lids apparently use more plastic than the previous lid/straw combo due to thickness. My local recycling center put out a request to stop sending plastic grocery bags because they were jamming the machines. So we use the cloth bags as much as possible. I have those metal straws and the cleaning brushes. You have to be thorough rinsing any soap residue out (you'll taste it) and they conduct heat really well if using with hot liquid so keep that in mind.

[SCI-Nurse]

Many people with certain disabilities (MS, Parkinson's, TBI, and CP come to mind immediately) cannot use the hard metal or glass straws as they risk damage to their mouth or teeth due to jaw clenching/tremor/spasm. Paper straws often collapse and fall apart, especially in hot liquids. Not everyone with a disability has the same issues (or lack of them) that someone with a SCI has.

(KLD)

[gjnl]

A company named Tervis makes practically indestructible plastic insulated tumblers and mugs. They make durable bendable plastic straws that come in a package of assorted colors or in a frosted finish. They can be cleaned with a brush similar to the one I posted above.

The key is to remember to remove them from the glass you are using at the restaurant and take them home. I use a universal cuff with my own fork. I've left my fair share of these at restaurants in 35 years.

https://www.tervis.com/flexible-stra...h-1067655.html

[air ohs]

Maybe San Francisco should focus more on tidying up the heroin needles and human fecal matter permeating their streets? Seems like a more value-added proposition

Totally agree Andy

[RollPositive]

Many cities and towns across the United States have or are considering banning plastic straws. Restaurants, fast food outlets, and coffee shops and employees could be fined and/or jailed for providing plastic straws with beverages. In the city of Santa Barbara in California, a restaurant employee or owner could be fined $1000 after an initial warning to stop providing plastic straws and serve a 6 month jail term for multiple infractions of the plastic straw ban ordinance. Supposedly these ordinances have provisions that would exempt providing plastic straws to people with disabilities.

San Francisco has passed a similar ordinance to the one in Santa Barbara. The plastic straw ban will go into effect next year. Read more here: http://eastbaytimes.ca.newsmemory.com

Disabled Often Forgotten in the Effort to Ban Plastic Straws

Mercury News (East Bay Times)
July 30,2018

San Francisco has decided to ban them in restaurants, cafes and other businesses.

The Disney Company will do so in the happiest places on Earth.

The global campaign to do away with plastic drinking straws is gaining momentum as environmentalistscontinue to try to reduce plastic waste polluting beaches, parks and oceans and filling landfills. Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda are among the growing list of cities that restrict or ban them in many businesses.

But there are also unintended victims of the campaign. People such as 44-year-old San Francisco resident Alice Wong, who has a progressive neuromuscular disability that affects her ability to lift and hold things, tilt her head, swallow and breathe. For Wong, plastic straws aren?t a convenience, they are a necessity of life, and she says the ban feels like a personal attack on her. Straws allow her to drink hot liquids and bend forward to sip a drink, and the alternatives to them often fall apart too easily, fail to bend, or pose injury risks.

Given the wide range of disabilities and needs, activists say campaigns painting straws as nonessential ignore those who depend on them. It is, they say, an issue of equality.

Seems you are creating another panic...replacing plastic for paper is great for the environment which you never mention...?

If one needs to use a certain style straw or bring one of there own its not an issue. Its not that a customer will not have straws they just wont have plastic but paper.

Remember children still will need straws too.

We did fine in the 60's and 70's before plastic came out!

We always have a few bendable paper extended (longer) straws in our van, suitcase and backpack...Never an issue!

[gjnl]

Seems you are creating another panic...replacing plastic for paper is great for the environment which you never mention...? (added by gjnl)

If one needs to use a certain style straw or bring one of there own its not an issue. Its not that a customer will not have straws they just wont have plastic but paper.

Remember children still will need straws too.

We did fine in the 60's and 70's before plastic came out!

We always have a few bendable paper extended (longer) straws in our van, suitcase and backpack...Never an issue!

I don't have a dog in this fight one way or another. I thought it was an interesting story to share and worthwhile discussing here...that's it!

[bubbagump]

I ordered a package of flexible plastic straws from the Sammons Preston catalog and keep several in my wheelchair backpack, so in case I am somewhere that doesn't have straws, I still have one to use. I also have used those solid colored sippy cups for toddlers. There is one by Sassy that doesn't have a spout, so it looks less babyish that I found on Amazon.