Truesee's Daily Wonder

All plastic should go. Worst environmental damage creation on this planet.
Go back to paper and glass or some other biodegradable substance.

They make heavy paper cups so they can make straws out of heavy paper.

Finally Jap. We agree on something LOL this and that LOL

I agree 100%.

The ban on plastic straws is more scam than science...even its proponents admit to that, that they are using it as a starting point for more bans on other plastic items. The "Americans use 500 million straws/day" statistic comes from a 9 yr. old boy who came up with that figure from phone surveys of straw manufacturers...and followup inquiries suggest he vastly exaggerated that number.

The alternatives aren't so eco-friendly, either and the energy required to produce them is often much more than that of making plastic straws. Many of those aren't readily biodegradable, either, only a little less so than plastic. Besides, only a minuscule number (comparatively speaking) of straws reach the ocean.

That's not to say we shouldn't limit our use of plastics, but there's no way we can completely ban it. Limit its use in packaging, sure, but we reply upon plastics in many ways...in medical equipment, to keep car weight down (and saving on fuel in the process), plumbing, furniture, computers and many, many other ways there is really no viable substitute for.

Yes, we do need to limit the "one time use" types of things and stores should keep encouraging people to use alternative type bags to bring their purchases home. (although I'd like to see a study of just how long those bags made from polymers last and how much energy is used to produce them, plus how energy efficient it is to keep them sanitary. I have a few of those bags from a local grocery store, but am not thrilled about putting my produce next to a slab of raw meat...not unless both are in plastic wrapping and not really even then.)

The US is not responsible for but a small fraction of the plastic that winds up in the ocean, anyway. Most comes from China and Third-World countries, according to those who study the huge gyres around the world, those places in the oceans where currents meet and the plastic debris gathers.

Personally, I would like to see a ban on styrofoam or at least have some form of it that degrades more readily, just as we did with those six-pack rings.

We certainly need to quit using precious oil for most plastics and esp. quit burning it in our vehicles.

But, if they want to ban straws, fine by me. I seldom use them, maybe a few dozen times/yr.   I wish they had done it years ago, would have prevented me from being hit in the ear by a spitball.

Funny thing about balloons. Everybody loves throwing them up in the air and watching them blow away. However, this should be illegal and I believe it is in many places. The reason why is that when the balloons finally run out of air and blow down, they end up polluting the oceans and actually killing whales.