California Democrats considering passing law to jail waiters who offer unsolicited straws (Long Beach: school, restaurants)

[BurnInTheMil]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Pretty sure no one said this is the most important issue facing the state.

And, by politicizing this, you are saying conservative persons wouldn't care about “... single-use plastics pollution, contributing to the obscenely damaging dumping of “5 bags of plastic garbage annually for every one foot of coastline ...”.

I disagree. I am quite sure that conservatives with a conscience - of whom there are many - care a great deal about the condition of the environment in which they fish and hunt and camp and hike and farm and ...

I think who doesn't care are very small-minded persons for whom disrespect of their fellow citizens means nothing.

And I never said this is the most important either. I implied there are many, many other issues going on, that should make this an afterthought for the time being.

I am by no means the “greenest” person here, and I have no problem admitting that. Plastic straws are NOT the main issue in regards to the environment, but hey, please get worked up over more non-sense. If someone actually thinks it’s right to fine/Fire/jail a waiter/waitress for giving out a straw, god help this country.

[BurnInTheMil]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

No, s/he doesn't. Where do you live that you know different?

If one believes California has resolved all of its problems, they’re delusional.

[citizensadvocate]

Originally Posted by Ceece

And any "solution" will cause more problems for the environment on the back end. It always does.

Totally true, Google street view shows how roadside litter turns into landfill mountains in juristications over the years after they pass their single use bag reduction ordinances. Each and every one of them. The trend is also happening to statewide in areas with no local ordinances prior ever since SB270 came into effect in 2017 and forced jurisdictions without such ordinances to come onboard. So places that were once relatively free of litter a few years ago now become floating in plastic trash.

Based on litter audits done in the 2000s on jurisdictions before and after they passed such ordinances including San Francisco and Toronto shows how plastic litter on streets and in garbage facilities doubled or tripled since such ordinances had been passed. The garbage trucks were the same for two decades though unless they can be sealed during transport which would make garbage loading much more difficult and unlikely to be implemented upon waste collection companies due to expense and difficulty of use when running their trash routes. Orignally most trash were tightly tied within handled grocery bags, nowadays since they are harder to find so many other types of plastics end up escaping garbage bins and trucks when they are either dumped into a dumpster or while trucks pick them up and take them to the landfill. Unbagged garbage also take much more room in cans and dumpsters causing them to overflow much more quickly than if most garbage had been bagged

Putting them into recycle bin does no good. As they often will blow away when unbagged recyclbles are dumped into the trucks. In fact many recycling companies discourage people from putting plastic wrap inside due to burden on recycling machines.

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Bubba ... I LIVE in the midst of all that floating plastic debris. I know where it all comes from. It should all be banned. Plastic should be banned. So should stupidity.

But any smartly prioritized start would probably be with single use plastics.

I am not denying that plastic is harmful to both human health and health of other creatures around. Though Interesting they target the one that is most reused for household purposes and serve the important purpose for litter control. Their target is mainly coercing the end user into what they believe is green living and not the bags themselves. Look at how many real Single use plastics that comes with your groceries why not target those first? Any smartly prioritized start would be incentivizing companies and restaurants to alternative containers. And making bags more practical for reuse of disposal of garbage. Require garbage to be disposed of in compostible grocery bags and educate the masses about it. Incentivizing restauranteers to use compostible wear including straws and which are often microwave safe are a win win.

Countries that target the manufactures first and not the end users are the smart ones. Alas they are in the minority nowadays, though we can blame agenda 21 which agenda is now about controlling the end user than the manufactures unlike back in the 1990s and 2000s. It appears they are stating that we already experimented by requiring manufactures produce eco friendly products now we move on to requiring the individual to live in a "green" lifestyle based on what we dictate is green.

I don't defend conservatives at all both parties are hypocrites and they are both marching in lockstep of the police state just in different ways.

[Tulemutt]

He explained that when he sent the proposal to the state legislative rules committee, health and safety code penalties were automatically tacked on, making it a misdemeanor punishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for dine-in restaurants caught offering plastic straws without being requested.

"I didn't actually ask for penalties," Calderon said. "They were more or less prescribed to my bill by the code section."

He said he'll work to get the bill's language rewritten so that no one fears going to jail or paying hefty fines for handing out plastic straws. He said he expects the bill to reach Gov. Jerry Brown's desk for approval in about two months.

"Nobody is going to jail, nobody is going to be getting a $1,000 fine," said Calderon, adding that the bill does not affect fast-food restaurants or grocery stores.

Sharokina Shams -- a spokeswoman for the California Restaurant Association, which represents more than 20,000 restaurants in the state -- told ABC News her group is taking a wait-and-see approach on Calderon's bill.

"The association will study the bill's potential impacts and consult with its membership before taking an officials stance on the bill," said Shams, adding that Calderon's proposal "is preferable to an outright ban on straws."

Matt Davis, a spokesman for the national environmental group Clean Water Action, said Calderon's proposal makes sense.

"It's great he's doing it," Davis told ABC News. "It does reduce the amount of straws that restaurants are giving out and that's a good thing."

He said cities such as Alameda, California, have passed local straws-on-request ordinances and that many restaurants have saved money by not having to provide so many straws.

In New Jersey, too, local businesses have been participating in an initiative to reduce plastic straw use. And it has dramatically reduced the number of straws the companies are giving out, according to the Montclair Local.

A local eatery said it was using about a tenth of the straws it had previously used on a monthly basis, from 6,800 straws to 650, the paper reported.

Back in California, Davis said Calderon's concerns that plastic straws are fouling up the ocean are real.

"There is going to be more plastic in the ocean than there are fish by 2050," Davis said, citing a study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that was presented to the World Economic Forum in 2016.

He said that plastic breaks down into minute particles that fish mistake for food.

"I don't want plastic in my sushi," he said.

But, as I wrote earlier: always fun to ridicule that which we don't bother to understand, eh?

[CaliRestoration]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

"There is going to be more plastic in the ocean than there are fish by 2050," Davis said, citing a study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that was presented to the World Economic Forum in 2016.

Just like there would be no more arctic ice by 2016 according to another individual who has presented to the World Economic Forum.

Oh wait. We just set a record for Arctic ice last year.

[streetscenes]

Originally Posted by CaliRestoration

Just like there would be no more arctic ice by 2016 according to another individual who has presented to the World Economic Forum.

Oh wait. We just set a record for Arctic ice last year.

Cowabunga Dude!

[CaliRestoration]

Originally Posted by streetscenes

Cowabunga Dude!

Yup a picture snapped on the coastline of a third world country that will continue to pollute despite some California politician wanting to send waiters to jail for offering plastic straws.

Solving the problem!

[Mike Town]

Oh yeah good ol California at it again.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Mike Town

Oh yeah good ol California at it again.

Great to see you've grasped the thread and topic.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by CaliRestoration

Just like there would be no more arctic ice by 2016 according to another individual who has presented to the World Economic Forum.

Oh wait. We just set a record for Arctic ice last year.

You know, bubba, if it weren't drifting way off topic, I'd post a boatload of scientific research links demonstrating that the amount of arctic ice in a given year bears no support to the notion that global warming is a farce. You know, things like geological history demonstrating we are in an unprecedented phase of rising average temperatures ... rising at never before rates of acceleration ... etc. just for one thing.

But, suffice it topically to simply point out that global warming (or not) has exactly zip to do with plastic pollution. So I guess what you've contributed is a non-sequitur, at best. Which I must admit you are very predictable in resorting to in your posts on every topic!