California Considers $1,000 Fine for Waiters Offering Unsolicited Plastic Straws

Reason ^ | 01/25/2018 | Christian Britschgi

[SeekAndFind]

Ian Calderon wants restaurateurs to think long and hard before giving you a straw.

Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California's lower house, has introduced a bill to stop sit-down restaurants from offering customers straws with their beverages unless they specifically request one. Under Calderon's law, a waiter who serves a drink with an unrequested straw in it would face up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

"We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans," Calderon explained in a press release.

This isn't just Calderon's crusade. The California cities of San Luis Obispo and Davis both passed straws-on-request laws last year, and Manhattan Beach maintains a prohibition on all disposable plastics. And up in Seattle, food service businesses won't be allowed to offer plastic straws or utensils as of July.

The Los Angeles Times has gotten behind the movement, endorsing straws-on-request policies in an editorial that also warned that "repetitive sucking may cause or exacerbate wrinkles on the lips or around the mouth." Celebrity astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson (always up for a little chiding) and Entourage star Adrian Grenier have appeared in videos where an octopus slaps them in the face for using a plastic straw.

The actual number of straws being used is unclear. Calderon, along with news outlets writing about this issue—from CNN to the San Francisco Chronicle—unfailingly state that Americans use 500 million plastic straws a day, many of them ending up in waterways and oceans. The 500 million figure is often attributed to the National Park Service; it in turn got it from the recycling company Eco-Cycle.

[Reeses]

allowing aliens to have driver’s licenses so that aliens can legally drive vehicles

And while driving when they spill their sticky soda because they forgot to ask for a straw some child will die. Libtardism kills.

[Sequoyah101]

I don’t use straws in a restaurant but a law against providing one?

I had to read this to confirm the absurdity.

[3boysdad]

I’m going to place it inside a plastic milk jug then toss it in the garbage!

[Big Red Badger]

Spit’Wads...

The Horror.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

I know...It’s very amusing here ~ I’m in Orange County.

[Texan5]

All those problems can be solved by just driving a stake through the heart of the PC monster-it finally looks like enough of us are fed up enough to do it-starting with our new pres...

[Jacquerie]

From another thread I did a little math. One-third of one percent of Californians pay almost 50% of state income taxes . . . for now.

[cyclotic]

Yes! I want a straw, a Styrofoam cup and a paper bag. When I’m dropping $120 for a hotel room, darn tooting you’re washing towels every day. Save the earth on your own dime.

[Sivad]

The Democrat lawmakers need to to take a daylight trip
on Amtrak’s Starlight Express. The miles of homeless
encampments along the tracks replete with plastic
tarps and general garbage on the outskirts of California
cities is a sight to behold. Plastic straws my ass.

[KingofZion]

I told my wife this is why I will be leaving California as soon as I retire from my California-based employer. It pains me to do so as a 4th generation Californian but I can no longer tolerate the high taxes and the nonsense from the communists that run SF and Sacramento.