Posted on 01/04/2015 2:28:42 PM PST by RBStealth
The negative impact plastic is having on our oceans has been widely documented. Billions of pounds of plastic can be found on our beaches and in the oceans and 80 percent of the plastic pollution enters the ocean from the land. In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments—like grocery bags, straws and bottles—are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day.
For the surfing community, and the world, the war on plastic is an ongoing battle, and it’s one that we’re losing. We are drowning in plastic and sustainable efforts need to be implemented and supported so that future generations can learn to love and respect the ocean and all its inhabitants.
On my recent trip to Bali I was wowed by the waves, the crystal blue water, and radiant coral. But I crushed by the pollution that lined the beaches. After an epic session at Shipwrecks on Nusa Lembongan, I stumbled into a café and ordered a mango smoothie that was served with a glass straw. I admired the straw, considering it nothing more than a sweet café accessory to accompany the sweet refreshing beverage. After devouring my breakfast, and walked to the counter to pay and ask the waitress about the straw. I soon learned that it wasn’t just a flashy accessory, it was a powerful movement.
...
We can repair the past by remodeling for the future. By simply suggesting to your local café or favorite restaurant to introduce glass straws, your making a huge difference in the fight against plastic.
(Excerpt) Read more at theinertia.com ...
No, but you can keep a big gulp with a cap and straw on a carseat - properly propped up, of course - with no spills.
-JT, former long commuter; thankfully no more.
Thanks, I was just a child then so I figured I mis-remembered it.
more leftist insanity
Green idiot paper straws work just fine so if you have a problem with plastic coated paper....
Ive been to Bali.. they do some odd things.. like sell gasoline in recycled Absolut vodka bottles... you see them at ever store.. seem absolute vodka bottles are perfect 1 liter.. just right for all those little motor scooters you see everywhere also... but why absolute vodka bottles I have no idea
Really? My dad probably had a dozen underneath the front seat of his ‘76 Jeep, along with some of my fries.
Idiots can’t drink straight from a glass?
So true.. history of oil is actually “green”
Use to be the reason for the whale hunting industry was for oil for oil lamps....
but then that found a substitute for all that whale oil...
Kerosene.. that was made from natural crude oil .
but at first when you refined natural crude for the Kerosene ....everything else was waste by product...
So they wanted to find uses for all this waste by product when refining kerosene from crude oil ..and one of the waste products they found a use for was
Gasoline...
and all your other modern petroleum-based plastics are made from all these once waste products...
so from whale oil to kerosene to gasoline and other petroleum plastics
plastic and gasoline is a 3th generation green product
Are these glass straws supposed to be washed and reused or thrown away? Seems as though the amount of water to either wash the straw or to make a new one would be far more of an environmental concern than using paper ones or doing without.
And yet, I can’t find a single piece of outdoor furniture made of plastic that doesn’t get brittle and fall apart in the Florida sun in a few years- some don’t last that long, like the fake wicker that quite literally turns to dust.
Milk jugs deteriorate to nothingness in a matter of weeks or months.
Grocery bags in just weeks.
Styrofoam won’t last the day if my chickens can get to it.
Rubber bands turn brittle in short order.
I seriously doubt that any form of plastic made will survive the same natural forces that reduced Rocky Mountain sized peaks to the Ozark plateau, or carved the cliffs of Dover. The way some people act you’d think the stuff was made of diamond.
I like your idea. Especially the last part.
I wonder if the author knows that glass straws would have to be made of sand, which requires the mining of sand from the environment, namely fragile desert ecosystems, beaches and rivers?
You are spot on with your comments on the article page. I ran a recycling on a Naval facility and at a privately run municipal landfill/waste transfer facility. For the most part the ideas coming out of the left on the subject are lies and trickery. They are Luddites.
There are some categories of materials worth recycling and they will be recycled without government forcing us to do so. The bag bans and such ALWAYS have unintended consequences that negate any benefit.
Chickens completely break down styrofoam, and it doesn’t hurt them a bit. They’re constantly trying to break into my garage to eat my foam coolers and if we leave a foam cup on a bench they make off with it, the entire flock following the lucky hen like a football team going after the opposing team’s quarterback.
When it comes out the other end there’s nothing left of it but fertilizer.
I used to say you could feed the homeless from all the food dropped in the nooks and crannies of my old van.
I don’t want broken on the beach, the pool deck or my mouth.
I don’t think a glass straw would be workable around most Progressives as they might put their eye out! Forks are dangerous enough!
LOL! I think most everyone has the same story.
I remember the good old days when sodas came in reusable glass bottles. Grocery stores hated these bottle returns as they were rarely rinsed or washed and became cockroach hotels. While bottlers used a cleaning process before refilling the bottles, it was not unusual to find miscellaneous crud in your soda bottles and even an occasional mouse or cockroach was not unknown. I would prefer to use single use disposable containers or straws that can be recycled.
They documented that the vaunted "Garbage Patch" amounted to the equivalent of one plastic bottle cap, per km^2 of ocean. Granted, that's not exactly pristine....but a double handful of plastic from horizon to horizon, does not a landfill make.
I'll dig around in the FR vault, see if I can find the article.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.