Don't worry about the environment...
It'll all be ok as long as everyone uses paper straws and wooden cutlery.
A few days ago I went to the park to think, read and write (I love doing that) and with some new-found additional time on my hands currently was looking forward to spending it in this enjoyable way amongst the trees and the grass, the birds and critters, gentle breeze, fresh air and all that other stuff the outdoors provides. I grabbed a take-away salad and coffee from a cafe close by and made my way to the park in a positive and enthusiastic mood...and then ate my lunch with the wooden cutlery the cafe had provided.
I don't know about the state of play in your location, but here in Australia the shift to wooden cutlery (for take-away purposes) and paper straws has occurred because it's going to save the planet from it's ultimate demise and the human race as well. But is it?
Whomever came up with paper straws and wooden cutlery is a fucken diabolical thunder cunt.
Anyway, no matter who's to blame and how big a thunder cunt they are, they can't match the thunder cuntiness of the fucken assholes who ignore entire countries whose behaviours are far more damaging to the environment than plastic cutlery and straws could ever be; I don't have to name them, we all know who they are. And what about virtually every human on the planet who demands more and more consumer goods without any thought to how all that shit adds to the issues. (Shoes, phones, clothing, electricity, those little fragrance things that go in the air vents of cars...)
We can't have plastic straws and cutlery, but it's ok for commercial fishing (globally) to accept that their catch is 50% by-catch (fish they don't want to harvest) which is thrown overboard dead or dying and to dump an estimated between 500,000 and 1 million tonnes of netting, line and fishing equipment into the ocean annually also. (Google it)
We can't have plastic straws and cutlery, but it's ok for clothing labels and manufacturers to produce endless "new clothing items" (the fast fashion craze) which ends up in landfill of on the beaches of Ghana. The clothing/textile industry produces some 20% of the planet's waste water and more gas emissions than aviation and shipping combined. (Google it.)
We can't have plastic straws and cutlery, but it's ok for some 1.3 billion tonnes of food produced for human consumption to be wasted. I read that if food waste was a country it'd rank as third largest carbon emitter globally. (Google it)
I think you get the point here. There's loads more things I could list but you all either know them, can research for yourselves, or simply don't care.
Make no mistake, I'm not saying that plastic cutlery and straws are good for the environment or that alternatives aren't required...just that it seems a very cursory and ineffective strategy when compared against some of the other environmental issues we face; it seems to me that those items are an easy target and in blaming them (and controlling them) it applies a facade or veil (thin though it is) over the real issues...it's a deflection because things are so out of hand and rectification methods far too costly. Another example of people being controlled and kept in the dark.
So there I was, picking splinters out of my mouth because of the wooden-fork-lunch-eating-experience cursing the inventor of that wooden torture device, in the glorious outdoors and wondering if humanity will ever wise up and if they do will it be in time. I don't think so though, people just don't want to pull back on their demands for more and more and the cycle will continue. Sure, a few try to do the right thing but it's all too few and all too little.
Have you experienced eating food with those diabolical wooden knives and forks or used a paper straw only to experience it's demise half way through your drink? (Why the fuck do we even need straws in the first place, can't we drink out of cups?) If you love it then please tell me why.
Are you one of those people who actually feels enough is being done to curb the wastage and environmental impacts humans are responsible for? (You'll never convince me of course, but you're entitled to your opinion.) Comment about whatever you like I guess, if you'd like to.
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I think human are responsible for most of the damage of the environment,not all counrty men but most of the country men are responsible for that.Plastics are dangerous for our planet.we should recycle it as much as possible.
Indeed, but most "recyclable" plastics end up in landfill...or is not actually recyclable at all. Do some research on it and you'll see.
We’re always told to do our part use paper straws, bring our own bags, recycle but it’s frustrating when the bigger damage is caused by industries and powerful countries that don’t seem to care at all. We need bigger action, not just guilt trips over straws.
Yep, that's my point as well...they push it down to the "little people" and inconvenience our lives but the biggest issues are left unaddressed. It all comes down to money I guess.
I guess you have to start somewhere, but I get what you are saying.
I love using straws. I have switched to paper straws at home though except for my tall cup which has washable thick plastic straws that came with tiny straw brushes to use to keep them clean. I was aghast seeing the videos on the humongous floating islands of plastics in the sea. When I see something crazy like that, I'm always wanting to say "I know we have to put trash somewhere, but who decided it was ok to dump in the ocean???" When the problem began, it should have been stopped and a better way figured out, either stop the manufacturing of the plastics or find another solution to discarding them. Ugh !
I haven't eaten with any wooden utensils yet. When I was working away from home though, I bought a set, knife, fork & spoon of real stainless utensils, but it was child size. Not infant mind you, but shorter than the regular adult size. I had them in a plastic container that I kept at work, so I didn't need to use a plastic fork or spork. I guess it might be a good idea to find something like that to keep in the car for future carry-outs. Wooden utensils.... Ugh!
I don't know the answer to all the things, but I know we can do better.
Indeed, they should start with the most damaging issues though, rather than taking the focus away from them in a smike-and-mirrors style distraction that is straws.
I keep two sets of stainless cutlery in all of my vehicles (little kits that include chopsticks) and have done so for a long time, for convenience and now also to avoid the wooden splinter-cutlery they provide now. Seems to work well.
As for plastics, most is not recyclable (even if it has the recycle logo) and some deep dive googling will demonstrate that. It ends up in landfill. Remember that post I did a out the oceans and another on general recycling which called out Amazon for ditching brand new (unsold) televisions into landfill because it was cheaper than recycling...well, that's where they should be focused, not on straws. There's hundreds of other examples. There's a load of stuff they could be doing but they do not because it restricts revenue...better to make the masses change their habits huh? The dual benefit us that the focus comes off the main offenders right at the top. Assholes.
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Hear! Hear! It's all smoke, mirrors and sleight of hand. Let them suck on paper straws while we strip mine the planet. If only everyone were like you and me m'dear, we would have Utopia:)
People just don't get it right? I made the smoke and mirrors comment in another comment here...it's so obvious.
I'll tall ya, our utopia would be the best there ever was...alas, this planet will more resemble an apocalyptic landscape than a utopian one.
I think they've created these things to make people think they're doing something for the environment and distract them from what's really going on. You realise how many distractions there are in the world to dumb people down so they don't realise what's really going on... and people just walk around like they don't have a brain.
No, I haven't eaten with wooden cutlery or paper straws, I drink from a glass and eat with my hand or take my own cutlery. To make those things out of wood or paper they cut down trees... nobody thinks about that?
I don't think anyone, including me, is doing enough... it takes a lot more.
A distraction indeed, there is no doubt.
None of us is doing enough, as you say, but I think it's really quite difficult for the little people to make as big a differ nice as is required...but countries and corporations/industry can...but won't.
Exactly, and above all governments could make a difference, but they don't want to, they just want money... and power.
I've been a critic of fast fashion disposable clothing for ages, and I've been making an effort to consume at least somewhat consciously. I rarely eat fast food, and when I do, I tend to wash and re-use the plasticware a few times. I also carry a French surplus mess knife with a metal fork and spoon in my car kit because it works even better. But when regulations impose small burdens on us while ignoring the bigger problems their regulations often encourage, it adds insult to injury.
I think most would agree with us when the facts are laid out clearly although there's always those whose minds are so closed off to truth (or controlled) they just see what's fed to them...the lies.
I feel also that many people actively do what you're doing, recycle, reuse and repurpose where they can and so should they, but it's a lot farther up the food chain where the real changes have to happen.
I do abide by the think globally-act locally motto, but do agree with you: the message that is passed is that our tiny actions are "needed", and in reality they solve zero when we take a closer look to the actual pollutants. I have seen the stats about the amount of plastic left on the ocean by the fishing industry and is just mind boggling.
Thanks mate, yeah it's exactly the point I was trying to make. It's a joke that they make it about straws when the true issues are so very much bigger...and are not being addressed.
The commercial fishing industry has a lot to answer for indeed. Shameful really. (Other industries too.)
Money talks, unfortunately. Big issues are way harder to tackle, especially when there's no will (aka money to be made).
Yep, well said.
Rarely do I use a straw.
My travel mug does have a metal straw for when I am rolling.
I tell Kel, no straw please, I do not Suck or Blow...*
Nothing wrong with metal straws. Anyway, I heard plastic straws are coming back in America right?
Heheheh...
Exactly.
I bought cheap clothes from Uzbekistan for my children several times, they were 3 times cheaper, but they quickly became unusable. Now I understand that good clothes also protect the environment. I am happy to wear trousers and shoes for 5 years, I have sweaters and a shirt that are 25 years old and I sometimes wear them.
I don't think there's anything with quality but have a problem with consumer greed and the constant drive towards more and more things whi hbis wasteful on resources and pollutes the environment, a cycle that will have predictable results.
I personally don't mind the wooden cutlery but I get the sentiment. Never experienced a mouth splinter before - that might change things for me 😂
The switch away from non-biodegradable single use plastics to paper and wood is obviously a very minor step in progress in the grand scheme of things but it does eliminate waste in landfills, to an extent.
I think what these situations demonstrate though is that companies won't do the "right thing" unless they are regulated and mandated by the government to do so. As demonstrated time and time again. Consumerism is a whole other beast though. Its almost a chicken and the egg scenario. As long as there is a demand for cheap products and fast fashion then companies will keep producing them. How do you get people to stop shopping, especially when there is always talk and emphasis on economy and GDP...ect?
I find it somewhat alarming how we are starting to move backwards as a society in many ways - like in energy for instance. The push for Solar and renewable energy has seemed to stall out and now we are going back to oil and coal burning. That's wild to me.
As a generalized human society we put the emphasis and importance on money/profits/business/economy...etc and when we look at life solely through that lens, it changes how we choose to exist on this planet. This is an overgeneralization of course and it's sort of a spectrum where an individual country's ideologies falls on that scale, but you get the idea. If we collectively looked at life through a different lens then we would shape society differently.
I think we're on the wrong path and for many reasons which you also touch on. I don't know what the answers are, only that the things they present as solutions are no solutions at all. Just because a thing is hard to do doesn't mean it doesn't need doing but it seems in many ways the hard things are deemed too out of reach so they focus on the less important but more easily implemented things and the cycle continues with the biggest polluters and wasters free to continue on their revenue wasting ways.
I'll be dead in 20 years so won't really feel the full brunt of the issues however many people will and I do not think it's going to be pleasant. Hiding the truth won't make the reality of it go away, but it seems people are expert and doing that these days.
I think that businesses essentially buy elected officials by funding their campaigns when they run for office and in turn governments cater to businesses. Plus companies threatening to leave a country or region and all of that jazz.
It does sort of make one feel doomed in a way. Especially because I like to think of the physics notion - that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transfered. Makes me think that we all just get recycled into new earthly forms over and over endlessly. Perhaps in a few decades you and I will be "out of the pan" only to end up "in the fire," so to speak. Who knows?
very nice view, that makes me want to go there
It's nice indeed, and better in person.
Subsidies for farmers lead to a lot of waste as well I think. I don' know if it is as big of a thing as it used to be, but back in the day it was pretty common. I don't think have used a wooden spoon since the days of those little ice cream cups or popsicle sticks, but my wife hates the paper straws!
We should start a paper straw haters club, I reckon there'd be a lot of members.
I think you are right! I have a glove box full of disposable plastic straws from McDonald's, hopefully the eco police don't catch me!
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