In the hot summer, holding a large cup of cold drink, it is milk tea, soda or iced coffee, as long as you suck a few mouthfuls on the plastic straw, it is always very cool. However, this experience, in the Starbucks coffee shop is about to Become a memory. Starbucks headquarters has announced that it will completely ban plastic straws in its 28,000 stores by 2020 in response to the action of resisting disposable plastic products. China headquarters will also participate.
As soon as the news came out, the netizens stood in 3 teams. In addition to discounting the environmental protection behavior and dissatisfying the use experience, there were also a large number of 'eat melon' mass incarnations: Will you use macaroni and green onion to absorb it in the future? How can the cup not be stopped, can you bully if you look at the straw?
Don't worry, look at the recent ban on plastics at home and abroad. In fact, there will be substitutes for disposable straws. The key is to see people who are used to waiting for plastic products. Would like to go out of the comfort zone.
In fact, with the exception of Starbucks, there are many people who say 'no' to disposable plastic straws. Starting in September this year, all McDonald's restaurants in the UK and Ireland will completely stop the use of plastic straws, replacing them with paper straws; The Wei Group announced this month that it plans to ban the sale of disposable plastic straws in its nearly 6,000 supermarkets and shopping malls, which is expected to save more than 42 million straws per year.
Why are countries targeting disposable plastic straws? Because it is not a necessities, but a 'luxury' - its environmental costs are too high. According to statistics, the United States discards about 500 million plastic straws every day, dumping more into the ocean every year. Up to 1,200 tons of plastic, threatening the marine ecology. A waste disposal company in the United Kingdom has included plastic straws as 'hard-to-recycle' items, calling it 'the ultimate waste of mankind' and recommending a tax on plastic straws. After all, a plastic The use time of the straw is only about 20 minutes on average, and then it is abandoned.
In order to find alternatives, people have tried to develop straws of different materials, such as paper, stainless steel, silicone texture or biomass degradable materials. At this stage, each alternative is not perfect, such as paper straws are easy to dissolve at high temperatures; The silicone pipette has a low hardness and needs more air suction; the stainless steel straw is cold and hard, and the affinity for the lip teeth is slightly lower.
Some opponents used this as a basis for advocating the continued use of plastic straws before finding alternatives to plastic straws. This idea implicitly reveals anthropocentric thinking – meeting human needs and being more environmentally friendly.
In the book "Without Our World," American scientist Wesman once boldly assumed that if humans suddenly disappeared from the earth, what would the earth be like? He predicted that after 10,000 years of human disappearance, most plastic bags still Will not disappear, will continue to float on the earth. It can be seen that if consumers are in love with the comfortable use area of disposable plastic products, one day, this comfort zone will also fall, surrounded by plastic garbage.
So, this wave of banned plastics only pinches the disposable soft straw, the 'soft persimmon'? No, there are big cockroaches after the opening war. Leading companies in the world are putting more disposable plastic products on the blacklist. For example, Germany About 3,200 branches of the supermarket chain Lidell will stop selling disposable plastic products such as straws, cups, plates, tea, cotton swabs and so on before the end of 2019.
The ban on plastics not only involves corporate participation, but also government action. The British government announced in April this year that plastic straws, stir bars and cotton swabs will be banned next year. Paris, France will gradually ban plastic straws in major municipal public institutions starting in September. .
Of course, more coercive measures and punitive measures are just means, not an end. We also hope that by disabling disposable plastic straws, more people will enhance environmental awareness and passive restrictions on disposable plastic products. Don't dare to use it, turn it into active rejection, don't want to use it.