Cultural change and behavior are fascinating to watch. I often wonder why so many folks prefer to require other people to do things — or refrain from doing them — rather than respecting what others think, or making a case for their point of view and persuading others to join them. Case in point: the controversy over the use of plastic straws.
In July, Seattle imposed America’s first ban on plastic straws. Vancouver, British Columbia, passed a similar ban a few months earlier. There are active attempts to prohibit straws in New York City, Washington, D.C., Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco. A-list celebrities from Calvin Harris to Tom Brady have lectured us on giving up straws. Both National Geographic and The Atlantic have run long profiles on the history and environmental effects of the straw. Vice is now treating their consumption as a dirty, hedonistic excess.
Not to be outdone by busybody legislators, Starbucks, the nation’s largest food and drink retailer, announced on Monday that it would be going strawless.
I respect the environment and understand concerns about plastic — even though some stories and statistics don’t hold up, as Reason points out. But can’t we at least have a rational discussion about the pros and cons of replacing plastic straws? Consider this from an assistant editor at Reason:
As it turns out, the new nitro lids that Starbucks is leaning on to replace straws are made up of more plastic than the company’s current lid/straw combination.
Right now, Starbucks patrons are topping most of their cold drinks with either 3.23 grams or 3.55 grams of plastic product, depending on whether they pair their lid with a small or large straw. The new nitro lids meanwhile weigh either 3.55 or 4.11 grams, depending again on lid size.
(I got these results by measuring Starbucks’ plastic straws and lids on two seperate scales, both of which gave me the same results.)
This means customers are at best breaking even under Starbucks’ strawless scheme, or they are adding between .32 and .88 grams to their plastic consumption per drink. Given that customers are going to use a mix of the larger and smaller nitro lids, Starbucks’ plastic consumption is bound to increase, although it’s anybody’s guess as to how much.
I hail from Arizona, where water — more precisely, the lack of water — is a constant concern. There was a time when Arizona restaurants automatically provided glasses of water to every customer. It was a huge waste, with many folks taking a sip and leaving the rest to be poured down the drain and the glass put into the dishwasher. But a few years ago, a movement took hold to provide water only on request. It’s a conservative approach that respects individual choice and is mindful of our environmental impact. This requires each of us to be responsible, as each of us defines it. Applied to the plastic straw issue, this means we each make a choice. If I ran a company, I would simply advise customers that plastic straws will be provided only on request. As a customer, I would think twice about asking for one. Simple. No mandate. No public pronouncements. Just common sense.
