It's Friday lunch time and I'm sitting at my desk trying to eat with a set of flimsy wooden cutlery. The so-called knife barely cuts through the meat, the pointy bits of the spork are too blunt and too short to stab anything with, and the spoon part is too shallow to be scoop anything up.
The paper straw in my drink has turned soggy after less than 10 minutes and it's got this damn ugly taste to it.
I'm curious if anyone actually likes these replacements?
Hate them but it's better for the environment than having a trillion plastic straws floating around the ocean so yeah it is worth it.
Or perhaps you could put them in the bin instead?
@idonotknowwhy: Not sure why you're downvoted. The video clearly isn't in Australia, and we do have proper waste management.
This isn't an informed opinion
Yes what people don’t understand is that 50% of the world oxygen is produced by the microorganisms in the ocean, not all made by the rainforests.
It's great, no need to throw your paper straw into the bin, just throw it into into the ocean.
Yea. Corporations successfully shifting the blame from themselves to households.
I agree that It's way better for the environment, but we still need a better solution. Those paper and bamboo ones are horrible.
I got a splinter from a wooden fork. Screw wooden cutlery.
Pretty sure screwing it will give you more splinters
You'll be ok. The weekend is coming.
You could always leave a metal set of cutlery at work? Just an idea.
Bringing metal cutlery is an option. I guess my thought is, why even waste the resources/energy to manufacture these things if they're that useless?
Quick google: In the USA, an estimated 500 million single-use plastic straws are used each day.
I don't know how that could be when their population is less than 500 million? I guess a lot of people have multiple drinks per day. (Edit - I forgot about bars and clubs where many drinks come with a straw, and people have many drinks per night).
"Soggy straw" is one of the small prices we will pay for allowing our planet to be a sewer system for plastic waste for too long.
@[Deactivated]: Generally richer countries produce more waste, this particular article is concerned with plastic waste. It generally follows from the fact that they consume more.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2020/11/11/which-t…
And that's not taking into account cumulative cosumption, and waste created, since the industrial revolution.
It's only a minor paint repair to an ocean liner of rubbish
I used to think like that, but we're beyond the point where blaming bigger countries for the same environmental negligence, relieves us of responsibility.
The more that small and rich countries like ours get on board conservation and pollution reduction efforts, the more the bigger countries can't ignore those standards. Why? Because the big polluters want to keep doing business with countries like ours. If the environmental gap widens between big polluters and smaller greener countries, it puts trade and cooperation at risk. Like how countries with human rights issues don't do very well at the negotiation table.
Quick google search on the source for the figure… oh it's an estimate made by a high schooler… (more googling) …serious estimates about half the amount… (even more googling) .. this has a massive net negative co2 effect and proper disposal will solve the problem which is largley not from the countries banning plastic straws….
The price might be worth paying if the payout was a cleaner planet but it probably isn't.
estimate made by a high schooler
Yeh I saw that but noted it was still linked on national geographic site. The point is the number of daily straws is massive. Even when halving 500 million we're left with a disturbing number of daily straws. Each taking many years to break down.
Proper disposal? How about proper sustainable manufacturing? When a plastic straw isn't used by customer, and placed on bar to be discarded in landfill where it sits for hundreds of years…. sorry, that's humans being dumb in 2022, from the straw's beginnings, all the way to bar service.
Straws are a poster for the gigantic firehose of wasteful plastic entering environment every second. Splintering into tiny particles over time. A big part of Starbucks banning plastic straws is setting a good example, and encouraging patterns of saving the planet, or not breaking it more than we have. That includes encouraging countries whose straws end up on beaches.
@cerealJay: Right so like Nat Geo, you decided a bad stat that supports your view is better than a more accurate number - who cares about being correct.
You haven't addressed the net negative CO2 emmissions (paper straws need a lot more energy to be produced).
I don't think people that dump their trash in rivers and oceans need to see an example of changing to paper straws, the example of not dumping rubbish in the waterways hasn't had an impact and that has visable benifits right away I don't think what starbucks does has any impact other than signaling virtue to their customers.
@jerrus: If your pro-plastic stance relies on nit-picking about how many hundreds of millions of straws are used and discarded every day, then your argument is toast. The fact that it's in the hundreds of millions per day for just one country, is the point.
Learn to read the room. The world is pushing back against plastic waste.
How much energy is required to CLEAN UP the plastic pollution that you're so proud of in terms of its initial manufacturing energy requirements? You have no idea. You don't factor that in because in your mind it's out of sight, out of mind. A problem for someone else. Your attitude will die out in the next few decades.
I don't think people that dump their trash in rivers and oceans need to see an example of changing to paper straws
They really do. Reduction of single-use plastic or any number of measures to protect the environment, is where the world needs unified targets. Those people have governments too, with laws and regulations and requirements to look after their own resources, water quality, waste management, health. Beyond that, tourism and generally good relations with other regions. For some countries it will take longer, for others they will need help. The important thing is that everyone gradually moves in the right direction.
@cerealJay: I'm asking questions that can be answered, I know and (on this issue) don't care about what the room thinks, I care about the answers. The promotors of the programs would be triping over themselves to share the data if the answers favoured what is being done.
I'm not pro-plastic, I'm against stupidity. The point about other countries is that if they don't follow an example on disposal of waste that has obvious imediate benefits why would they follow an example on a policy that has less imediate results? Note all the points you made about governments etc apply to this and haven't produced the results you expect so maybe thats why people like me disagree with you and starbucks - what you say is nice if the world behaved like you think it will but it won't.
You want the whole world to move in the right direction, I don't mind as long as it is the right direction. I'm not proud of plastic pollution I actually participate in cleaning it up where and when I can, my point is if you are litteraly trying to change the direction of the whole world you should have very good data and you should show it is better than what we are doing now. Not having an idea is kinda my point about the whole thing there is not enough information provided by the people making the change to justify it, the onus is on the people making the change to show it will be better. Otherwise your good intentions get taken advantage of by vested interests, in the US they finally looked into their corn to ethanol programs that have been running for years and found they increased staple food prices and caused 25% more CO2 emmissions than just using petrol.
To actually reduce the CO2 or the amount of plastic waste the replacement bags need to be reused on average at least 20 times, none of the companies that could clear up if that is the case are saying so (incidently they are now making a profit on what was a cost for their business and because the 2 main supermarkets made the annoucment on the same day they haven't lost any customers)
Do Americans drown their sorrows at the bar while waiting to get shot? That's still a bucket tonne of straws to use perday!
If you have go out for dinner and drinks at a pub and are drinking softdrink or spirits, you will get 1 or 2 straws put into your glass unless you specifically request they aren't.
Couple that service practice with all the different situations it applies, and it adds up quickly. EG if you're going out for lunch as well, or catching a flight to and fro a work event… going to a sports game. I'm sure i've been given over 10 straws in a day before.
why even waste the resources/energy to manufacture these things if they're that useless?
Convenience. If you run a take-away shop you can't really give your customers metal utensils and then have them pinky-swear that they'll bring it back the next time they visit..
They’re useless for cutting meat but they work fine for things like salads in my experience.
When it doesn't fall back off the fork. The points aren't sharp enough so it doesn't "wedge into" the food, just makes large square holes that allow food to fall back off every third or fourth time.
Because they'll improve over time
Perhaps the government is playing games with us?!
I find wooden cutlery to be more sturdy than cheap plastic cutlery. Paper straws, I agree are completely silly. However, FWIW, you can always just not drink with a straw.
The fork has rounded points and the "spoon" part is flat. The knife also has rounded points and barely cuts. I find that I have to be careful with both pieces so they don't snap in half. The straw, I did just chuck out and drank from the can.
Complain to the Cafe. They have cheaped out on the wooden cutlery
The plastic version used to be better though. In the 1960s-80s plastic forks were quite strong AND they weren't uncomfortable in the mouth. The most recent ones though were flimsy crap with a weird ridge down the back of each fork tooth that were unpleasant on your tongue as you pulled the fork out. Plus they often had a weird taste. All thanks, once again, to the landfill exporter of the world: China.
You put the fork in your mouth upside down? Or do you put food under your tongue?
visible confusion
@[Deactivated]: Sorry, I was just checking whether all your whining and posturing had resulted in a decline in the number of vegans or the return of plastic straws
Keep it up though mate I'm sure you'll have an impact one day
In the meantime you can have the "v" in "irrelevant"
It's a well known fact that vegans can't punctuate.
@Daabido: Pity I'm an omnivore
I'm just also not fragile
There there, the scary lettuce man is gone now
I think it's more that if you're silly enough to elevate animals to human status and so avoid eating meat, then you're also gullible enough to think less straws/cutlery makes a difference with China/Africa/Indonesia/ShitHoleStans/etc all pouring plastic into the ocean like slot machines paying out. It's much like kids who come home crying when someone at school mocks them and tells them, "Santa isn't even real you dummy!". (Though the Greenies/Vegans console each other with a pat on the head then go on believing their fantasies regardless.)
kids who come home crying when someone at school mocks them
How many tens of thousands of lumens would you say your projector is throwing out there?
Ummmm hate to break it to you mate, but humans are animals.
I hate them but every time I curse them I just think of all the dolpins and turtles I saved.
A paper straw lasts about 1/3 of a large frozen coke from Macca's.
Straws ain't killing dolphins - abandoned fishing gear is.
In any event, paper straws stuck in cups with plastic lids speaks volumes about this whole mess.
I got so pissed off with paper straws I got metal straws for in the car, so I suppose there's that.
What a pain in the neck washing them though. Have a drink, they attract dust and other muck which dries and sticks to the metal. But it's always better to poison the human beings in Greenie eyes.
Diddums
Use a straw brush to clean them
@Lucille Bluth: I just put them in the dishwasher, vertically on a free wire barb. Dunno what problems faulty pixel has.
Also you would have to use the metal straws thousands of times to make up for the CO2 used to create them
The McDonald's straws seem worse than anywhere else, I've never run into this problem elsewhere. I ordered a frappe the other day and the straw had become entirely flaccid after two sips.
hehe flaccid
I dislike paper straws but I dislike them less than I dislike seeing plastic straws littering our waterways 🤷♂️
My annoyance is momentary while a plastic straw will hang around for 200 years.
Just because my neighbour shits in his bed, even if some gets on the floor that we both share, doesn’t mean I need to shit in my own bed.
Interesting analogy that got a good chuckle outa me while my SO is trying to sleep next to me.
Just get your drinks from Hungry Jacks. No paper straws there.
I'm pretty sure they have paper straws at HJs now….
Last time I went they had no straws at all - just a flappy lip in the cup (kinda like a can only much easier to spill)
No vanilla cola there as far as I know, that's a dealbreaker.
they give paper straws now
i don't mind the straws, i always hear people complaining about them but i have left them in drinks for hours and never had them go soggy,
wooden cutlery isn't as good but i don't use it much anyway, it's also rare for KFC to actually remember to supply a spoon with the potato and gravy, but the potato and gravy tastes weird and chemically these days so i don't get it anymore.
I don't have the issues people have with the straws either, mine never get soggy, so I wonder if people just grossly exaggerate for the sake of it, the wooden cutlery is okay, I don't struggle with it.
i have left them in drinks for hours and never had them go soggy,
Wtf there is no way this is true
100 % true. i cannot fathom how people can have theirs go soggy at all, unless they are slobbering all over the straw.
The straws are a bit "meh", but I love the wooden cutlery. My local mexican place has the best wooden sporks. I pinched a couple to throw in my EDC kits for when I am out and we need some forks.
My local mexican place has the best wooden sporks.
Are they the disposable type that comes in a paper wrapping or are they much higher quality ones?
I like to call the paper straws half use, as they usually only last half way through my drink.
Agree but doesn't your work have communal metal cutlery that you can use?
They do - but when you buy takeaway, they hand you a set of disposable wooden cutlery in that paper package. Getting rid of plastic is one thing, but why try and replace them with something that's almost useless?
Just tell them when you order that you don’t want any cutlery?
Why should I be the one to tell them
@askbargain: I mean, I know you’re being sarcastic, and I appreciate the joke…
But the default really should be to give nothing unless requested by the customer.
My workplace threw ours out because no one was washing them up after use, a small group of people have to spoil it for everyone else.
We just chuck ours in the dishwasher and anything that's left in the sink gets taken care of by the cleaners.
Our cleaners only do the floors and toilets, staff cleans the rest of the shop, that's why the lunch table tends to look festy (because some don't wipe up after themselves, but I'll wipe before setting down my lunch). We also don't have a dishwasher, normally it was the invoice ladies or the managers that washed up after people if there were dishes at the end of the day. We have to have a fridge cleanout every now and then to get rid of stuff that's 3-6 months old, plus we keep running out of room in there.
Paper straws are stupid. Would rather silicon, metal or simply no straw. Paper straws disintegrate before you can finish your drink so you'd either need to get another one or just finish your drink without a straw anyway.
My question is where is all this paper and wood coming from to make all these paper straws, wood knife and forks, paper plates etc? I hope they are not cutting down more damn trees for this!
comes from recycle toilet paper
aaah, so that's where the colour comes from!
Tree's are very finite
where do trees come from?
Exactly. Meanwhile they haven't reduced any plastic because it's a by-product of making petroleum. It's just feeding into 3D printers and electric cars, battery cases for them, etc now instead. And more trees are lost (and need to be grown, meaning more fertiliser/chemicals)… well done Greenies - everything they push on the rest of us not only makes us miserable like them, but also makes the situation worse overall.
Enjoy your paper straws. I use them to drink your tears.
Sincerely,
A greenie who drives an electric car and owns two 3D printers
Paper straws are definitely a waste - they feel weird, disintegrate too easily and worst of all… are entirely unnecessary. Just design drink containers with spouts instead and those who want straws can bring their own reusable metal ones.
Cutlery is a bit more difficult… I really want to say that cutlery should just not be supplied at all, but I imagine a lot of hapless tourists and non-office workers caught off guard. On the other hand there are plenty of takeaway foods that can be eaten with just your hands.
At the end of the day these "biodegradable" cutlery pieces feel like transitional measures, and most of these things end up in general trash or littering the enviroment anyway (where they take decades to fully biodegrade). We should just normalize carrying a set of cultery around instead of manufacturing more waste, recyclable or not - better eating experience for you, better for the enviroment.
A lot of the disposable plastic stuff wasn’t that great either. Especially for things like cutting meat. I just keep normal cutlery at work.
They used to be though. In the 1950s-80s plastic cutlery was quite good: strong, could cut steak, etc. But as usual, once China started producing it, every possible skimping of quality and cost was made, making them complete crap. They became only slightly more useful than looking at a photograph of the previous versions before eating. Push them into a steak and they'd just bend and snap.
In true ozbargain style, I never buy takeaway drinks (well, maybe 2-3 times per year on long driving trips). therefore I never encounter paper straws
$1 large frozen coke from Macca's is not going to break the bank. Maybe your belt buckle, but definitely not the bank.
Drink can workaround without a straw. Paper straw is meh.
Food, I've had some biodegradable cutlery from a takeaway that were sturdy like plastic ones.