Taiwan to ban single use plastic straws

Cool, just checking.

Disposable bottles and tetrapaks annoy the hell out of me. What was wrong with recyclable glass ones? They don’t last forever, and I know they’re a bit heavy, but they’re fairly robust and easy to sterilize, and even if they get dropped, glass is very easy to recycle (if somewhat energy-intensive). You could charge a deposit on them so people are less likely to be careless with them.

As for straws and whatnot, I reckon we all ought to be walking around with a little sippy cup on a string round our necks. Could be a new fashion trend.

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Bugger. I’m always following, never leading.

Meself, I’m kind of partial to the Doc Holliday portable dram cup…

I don’t see it, they put straws next to the drinks before they even take your money just now. I think they think it’s good service. Just went and got a juice, and while I was getting money out the guy has already put a straw next my drink so quickly I didn’t even see until I picked up the drink. And he even picked it up and ask if I wanted it even though I didn’t pick it up. I hate it, it makes me angry. 711 and other stores like that are everywhere in Taiwan, and people love their drinks. It’s a completely unnecessary thing that can lessen our impact on the environment. We are not talking about something that’s hard to avoid, you just don’t need straws and it makes zero difference in almost all drinks you get. It’s not one of those things you kinda need and will be hard to change, you just don’t need it. It’s such a easy thing to change in our daily life, we shouldn’t even have to make a law on the ban. If everyone just stop using them for drinks for ones that don’t need it, it would lessen our negative impact on the environment. It pisses me off that we need the government to ban straws, it’s not something that even makes things more convenient. Just drink from the bottle or cartridge, it’s not hard and frankly it makes it taste better. I don’t understand why we can not use plastic bags and people bring reusable bags but then take 10 straws when they buy drinks. Plus you look like a bitch drinking with a straw. There are some things that will be harder to phase out and take some effort to break habits. Plastic straws are not one of them.

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McCain had an ad campaign in the 90’s saying it was helping the environment by not using glass because of the energy used in transportation (due to weight). I know, I know…

Yeah, typical weasel marketing. This overlooks the fact that liquids (and a lot of other stuff) make most of their journeys in bulk, and only the last few miles in consumer packaging. Glass containers could shorten the last-mile trip dramatically: tetrapak packaging requires much more specialised equipment (and therefore bigger, centralized processing and longer journeys) than does filling into glass bottles and capping. The way milk was sold in 1970 (at least in the UK) took explicit account of the weight of glass bottles; the whole process was more efficient and more environmentally friendly than it is today.

This didn’t happen, did it?!

Convenience store, fast food like McDonald’s, all still giving out plastic straws.

It wasn’t supposed to happen yet, was it? Starting at some places in 2019.

The history behind “straws for non-babies” is Capitalism 101: straws make people drink more and much faster, which is great for restaurants, especially fast food chains.

In fact, the wider the straw, the quicker you’re done with your beverage. Which is why straws have becomes wider over the years. See here.

And because the liquid is dumped directly into the esophagus, your brain never receives quenching signals from your lips.

Resist the straw. Drink slowly.

Now that you are on that, why is glass not recycled for profit in taiwan? My neighbors say that it is because it si so cheap, it does not make sense to pay to have it recycled. I mean, you cannot give the old recycle ladies/folk glass, the only places that receive that are the recycle trucks behind the garbage truck, some bins, maybe some convenience stores.

But then we have glass bottles for tea being sold in fancy stores for 800 ntd or more, and we have glass straws and … I give up.

Drinking fruit juice etc. through a straw is less harmful to your teeth, or so it was reported a few years ago.

Adults use straws?
What a wired country.

They are very wired indeed. What that has to do with adults using straws, I’m not sure. :idunno:

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Welcome to the new straw kit. One regular straw, one straw for bubble tea, and a cleaning brush.

Not me.

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Things to take when you go out:

Food container
Drinks container, thermos
Chopsticks
Spoon
Straw kit
Anything else?

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Re-usable bag to keep them all in

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Napkins, baby wipes, salt, pepper, chili sauce

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Taiwan very much needs compostable food containers. Considering that spent ones can be found everywhere- on the beach, in the mountains, in every nook and cranny, etc.

Ah but there’s an unwritten rule against restaurants raising prices, I guess due to stagnant wages.