Disney to eliminate plastic straws from owned theme parks

I somehow got involved with a FB group called Six Flags Great Adventure Connoisseurs and find that a number of people make highly intelligent comments. Whether it's commentary about other parks or speculation about what the 2019 attraction will be, it tends to be interesting - at least to me, as that's my home park. I don't recall reading any offensive comments when there's been a difference of opinion about a ride or something else.

I think everyone is an idiot. Why limit it just to FB users..

I'm all for not automatically handing them out to everyone just because but I think they should be available if specifically asked for. I have family members and students with disabilities that are only able to drink independently with a straw. I think they should keep some available for this reason but otherwise reducing usage is fine. I usually make a point of buying bottled drinks so I can close them and then refill the bottle with water over and over anyway. I can't remember the last time I drank with a straw in a park.

I think there will still be straws, just not plastic ones.
This isn’t new. A lot of zoos and places like that have already eliminated straws because they can’t have people leaving them in places where animals can get hold of them.
When I worked at Cedar Point in the 70’s we had no straws. It likely wasn’t an environmental effort, but maybe more to reduce costs and eliminate litter trashing up the place. I believe they have straws now, though.
I happen to like paper straws. They don’t last for hours in a drink, but they remind me of days gone by.

Tommytheduck said:

Without making a difference? Perhaps you just typed your thoughts incorrectly, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Okay, lets go with "without making much of a difference."

Most things that will really matter to the environment are going to require a bit more in the way of change. Here's a discussion on carbon that talks about how the big lightbulb brouhaha meant basically nothing.
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-effective-individual-tackle-climate-discussed.html

From that article:

The four actions that most substantially decrease an individual's carbon footprint are: eating a plant-based diet, avoiding air travel, living car-free and having smaller families.

For how many of those do you expect to see Disney advocating?

Looking back at the bar chart in that article, I have to laugh at several friends I have who each have 3+ kids, take 3-4 vacations per year (all flying with typically at least one involving transatlantic flights) and live where driving to pretty much everything is required (in family fleets of SUVs/trucks) -- each of which has the largest carbon footprint impact in that bar chart. But each one touts themselves as being friends of the environment because they did the two things with the least carbon footprint impact: changing lightbulbs and recycling. No doubt next time I see them they will be patting themselves on the back for banning straws from their households. Like buying a BigMac, large fries, apple pie with a Diet Coke.

Quit dissing my diet.

That changing the small things doesn't matter is pretty stupid. Small things in aggregate matter.

I’ll confess I’m a fairly big consumer of all things. But for the last 10 years we’ve taken to recycling with the city’s help, and I understand it all goes to the same place for sorting anyway. But it was amazing to us how much waste we have that is actually recyclable, I’d say it’s 90% of all we throw out. And we’ve made a conscious effort to reduce packaging (Costco not withstanding).
As for lightbulbs, I view it as a cost reducer and a convenience. LED bulbs last a lot longer and burn less. Those are the bulbs I feel comfortable leaving on overnight if we’re going to be gone. And not having to replace ceiling recessed bulbs is a blessing. We have some that have lasted 6 years now with occasional use.

As many of you know. I work at the state fair which is running right now. Lately I’ve paid attention to the incredible amount of trash that goes out of that place on a daily basis. It makes me wonder how many better ways there might be and how to get everyone on the bandwagon. For a while we used the compostable (corn) utensils and dishes. Maybe that’s a start if the treatment is done right. Pepsi is our supplier and they bring the standard waxed paper cups but there are plastic lids and straws. Hmmm.
As for the midway, most rides are now glittering with those color changing LED lights. I happen to dislike the garish look, but I’m sure it’s a lot cheaper for the show to run them compared to the incandescents. And there’s virtually no labor.

A lot of that starts with government, since individuals don't choose their garbage service. I lived in Medina County (Ohio) for a long time, and they nationally pioneered centralized garbage and recycling. Recycling was easy there because you didn't have to do anything different. You dumped all your stuff in a garbage can, and it went to the central processing facility that sorted it all. These days, we have two separate bins, but I'd say that 80% of what we toss is recyclable without any real special care taken.

There are viable solutions to almost every environmental problem, but some require changes in lifestyle, which people don't want to do, and some are technological, but won't be cheaper until they can be scaled. At some point people just have to will the changes into reality. I mean, even the US Armed Forces consider climate change a threat to national security, and we write blank checks for them, so why wouldn't we listen?

Jeff said:

That changing the small things doesn't matter is pretty stupid. Small things in aggregate matter.

I didn't say it didn't matter. In fact, I said every little bit helps. But stopping at the little things is at best naive, and at worst just a way to feel good without actually sacrificing anything.

Jeff said:

...even the US Armed Forces consider climate change a threat to national security, and we write blank checks for them, so why wouldn't we listen?

Something doesn't seem right with that logic. Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the armed forces to maintain/increase the money that they get? To do that it makes sense for them to identify as many threats as possible. Not debating climate change, but always believing the person that you keep giving blank checks to may not always be the best course of action.

They've testified that they don't want their naval bases to drown, and they can directly correlate climate change to the instability in Africa. The military itself, its leaders, don't seem that interested in getting financed... that's the people in Congress being lobbied by defense contractors to buy things the military leadership didn't ask for.

Now I see what you were saying. I read it as since we give them money they must be right.

I read somewhere that starbucks's solution to eliminating plastic straws involved a new cup top or something that actually requires more plastic to make than their old cup top and straw combo did.

That being said, this whole anti straw movement is asinine to begin with. Plastic straws are a tiny percentage of the plastic waste generated. Which makes total sense because they're tiny. Let me know when plastic bottled water and soda and all the others are banned. Then you'd make some actual headway.

If banning straws makes dumb people feel good about themselves though, good for them.

The problem isn't that plastic is used, it's that it's plastic used that isn't recoverable to be recycled. It's not asinine at all. In most urban centers, soda and water bottles get recycled. They absolutely do at Disney parks. A half-billion straws used in the US alone annually can be a "tiny percentage," but that doesn't make it an insignificant amount of non-recyclable waste.

I'm fine either way with straws not being offered, however, banning them is not the solution. We don't need another law on the books for something like this. It's up to the individual companies whether to stop offering them and people will decided whether or not it means enough to them to patronize those businesses.

Part of the potential problem with "small steps" is moral licensing. e.g. "I don't use straws at Starbucks so now I can drive around in my Escalade all day."

Do they not serve frozen drinks?

I'm remembering my experience at $ZOO when I bought a lemon chill equivalent and they handed me a "plastic" spoon that wasn't stiff enough to dig through the thing. I dropped the mangled spoon off at the customer service counter and told them it was not acceptable. I must have not been the only one because last time I was there they had those little wooden paddles like you used to get with single-serve ice cream cups. Still not great, but better.

And a lot better than the time I had to refuse delivery of an Icee and demand a refund because they didn't tell me beforehand that there were no straws.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Frozen drinks are the only things I drink where I see a need to have a straw. I don't drink them often, but I'll see how I fare on my next cruise.