Posted on 08/22/2019 5:13:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
I don’t know who said it, but whoever came up with the idea that “whatever liberals don’t want to ban, they want to make mandatory,” is absolutely accurate. You name it, they’ve got a plan to force everyone to do it or to rid the world of it. Nothing is too small to escape their crosshairs, not even straws.
Straws are a favorite target, the banning of which is all the rage in Democrat-controlled cities across the country. They pat themselves on the back so hard over this Jihad against straws that you’d think they were giving themselves the Heimlich maneuver.
Now they’re coming for water bottles. Honestly, it’s kind of surprising it took this long.
San Francisco International Airport has banned plastic water bottles from being sold inside the terminal because, they say, it will help save the planet. One traveler, a woman named Debbie Dubois, told a reporter, “I actually think it’s a really positive move. I’m really proud of the city of San Francisco and California for being aware and taking some action to save our planet.”
Yay, planet saved! Not exactly.
You can still buy any other non-alcoholic beverage in plastic bottles, and if you’ve ever bought a bottle of Coke you’ve likely noticed plastic “pop” or “soda” bottles (depending upon where in the country you are – btw: pop is correct) are much thicker than plastic water bottles. Some water bottles are so thin and flimsy they’re like trying to drink out of a Ziploc bag. Fox reported that vice president of the International Bottled Water Association said, “If consumers can’t get a bottled water product in their preferred plastic container, they are likely to purchase a less healthy beverage in a much heavier plastic bottle, which will actually increase the amount of waste generated as SFO.”
While the stated goal of the ban is to bring the airport closer to their goal of producing zero landfill waste by 2021, this “feel good” move will end up producing more waste. At least, that is, until they move to bad the next round of plastic.
Why the Jihad against plastic? Because waterways around the world, particularly the oceans, are becoming littered with the stuff. It’s the same “logic” behind the $.05 per plastic bag tax liberals imposed nearly everywhere they could.
But the problem isn’t the plastic, it’s the people who toss their trash out the windows of their cars or on the ground wherever they happen to be. Much like everything else, because of the acts of a few, they want to infringe upon or tax everyone else rather than cracking down and fining people who litter.
By the way, the overwhelming majority of the plastic in the ocean comes from Asia, but taxing and banning things in Asia isn’t an option. American pockets are here, and Democrats love to get their hands in those, especially when it can be wrapped in the idea of saving the planet.
There is a better way, if liberals really do want to address the problem.
I grew up in Michigan, a state where you won’t find many stray bottles or cans laying around parks or anywhere else. Why? Are Michiganders super-tidy? Not really. It’s because every can and bottle is worth a dime.
Michigan has a $.10 deposit on every bottle and can sold. So a pop that costs $.99 actually costs $1.09. When you bring the bottle back to a store that sells them, you get a dime. A case of beer cans is worth $2.40. As a kid, I funded by baseball card habit by collecting empties from parks and softball fields around the city. It was great for kids too young to work - gave us a way to get some money.
This would work for water bottles in California, plastic bags, or even straws everywhere. If those things suddenly had value, artificial as it is, you’d create an army of kids and homeless people snatching up every stray they could find. They wouldn’t end up in the water, they’d be recycled the second they hit the ground. You want to get rid of plastic bags, make them worth a nickel or dime. Once you pay for it, because they’re so thin, they become worthless the second you get your groceries out of them. If they didn’t rip before that. Tossing them in the trash or on the ground becomes an option when something has zero value. So why not a deposit instead?
The problem is, while a deposit would clean the streets and waterways, these local governments wouldn’t be able to wet their beaks. And no liberal government is interested in a solution to anything if they don’t get a piece of the action.
So, politicians and government officials continue to ban and tax without making an impact on what they say their ultimate goal is. Makes you wonder if control, and not keeping plastic bottles, bags, and straws from becoming litter, isn’t really their goal.
This behavior is also evident in people who are mentally ill. I saw it up close and personal with a family member. It was heartbreaking but you couldn't reason with him.
It's like he became a democrat...
No matter what consumers are keep on using it unless its production is slashed and a decent alternate is introduced.
Why are they so freaked out with straws when people are peeing and defecating in the streets along with their discarded syringes after shooting up? Any concern or regulation against needles and poop being left as litter?
After having the same problem a couple of days ago, I order a pack of 100 straws, individually wrapped. I intend to have a couple in my purse and in the car at all times.
I’m 71 when we were to young to work, we took the wagon around the neighborhood’s and collected soda bottles, we got 5 cents for every one we turned in at the grocery store. It’s how we funded candy and 45’s or a comic book.
Today bottles and plastic bags are recycled several times before they get to you. Which weakens the product. Solve the problem get a good water filter, and fill your own bottles, then grab and go. Want it flavored buy some water flavoring. Comes as sugar free too. Or make your own Tea and flavor it the way you want, refill the bottles over and over again. Or get a good permanent cup. I have a stainless steel coffee mug I fill before I go out the door in the morning.
But the problem isn’t the plastic.......He’s right. Its the Ganges, the Mekong and who knows what shithole countries that throw the crap away.
Having lived in Michigan I have to agree. I noticed significantly less litter in the parks than I do living in a state that has no deposit.
If nothing else its an incentive for winos to come and pick them up.
Dad was the chief ranger at one of the Metro Parks in S.E. Michigan. He said starting mid afternoon on weekends, the bottle and can pickers started showing up in his park and by the time they left, they would usually be taking home about a hundred dollars in cans and bottles that were either thrown in the trash cans or left strewn around the picnic areas.........
Paraphrase: Maybe the earth needed plastic and created us to make it.
George Carlin
... It turns out that about 90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world’s oceans gets flushed through just 10 rivers: The Yangtze, the Indus, Yellow River, Hai River, the Nile, the Ganges, Pearl River, Amur River, the Niger, and the Mekong (in that order).
These rivers have a few key things in common. All of them run through areas where a lot of people live — hundreds of millions of people in some cases. But what’s more important is that these areas don’t have adequate waste collection or recycling infrastructure. There is also little public awareness that plastic trash is a problem at all, so a lot of garbage, gets thrown into the river and conveniently disappears downstream...
https://www.dw.com/en/almost-all-plastic-in-the-ocean-comes-from-just-10-rivers/a-41581484
San Francisco Airport banned plastic water bottles, but San Francisco still have people pooping on the sidewalks...Great move...
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