• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Diamond Straws currently employs 15 people but is anticipating an uptick in business in the wake of President Trump’s executive order declaring that the US is “going back to plastic straws” and moving away from paper straws.

    You could one day aspire to be the 16th factory worker in the plastic straw factory. Unless, of course, those jobs are automated away by AI.

  • Reygle@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    We’re all such buffoons. McD’s in my area changed to an all plastic cup with a flip-open top so we wouldn’t need straws (so we can waste more plastic?!?!?) but for some fucked reason still always hands a plastic straw with the drink anyway, and hasn’t changed back to paper cups, presumably because people complained.

    Fuck off, humanity.

  • sleepmode@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    If the cups aren’t plastic they’re unrecyclable paper amalgamations. Plastic bags were recyclable but now we have reusable ones that aren’t. Or both. Same for straws. They gave up after a year or so around here.

    • dwalin@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Its was never about being recyclable. Its about microplastics that form when it starts to decompose.

      • CodexArcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 hours ago

        It was never about consumer behavior, just another front in the culture war while the people who could actually do something about pollution hide behind endless discussions about straws.

  • ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com
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    11 hours ago

    You know, if we could just get them to stop packaging things like an SD card in 3 layers of clamshell packaging I could let this slide. There are a lot bigger targets than this, unfortunately those bigger targets won’t be addressed in this administration, particularly if doing so means less profit for the offenders.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Ngl, paper straws are dumb af. Big oil will get their plastic made with or without straws.

    McDonald’s went from paper cups and plastic straws to plastic cups and paper straws. A net loss for the environment.

    Plastic straws are unequivocally better.

    Obligatory fuck trump.

    • Maalus@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Over here you have paper cups and paper straws. Shit spills every time you take it out / get it delivered.

    • burgersc12@mander.xyz
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      3 hours ago

      What single product bans could actually put a dent in our absurd plastic usage. Plastic grocery bag bans can only do so much when every banana is wrapped in 6 layers of single use plastic

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 hours ago

      Anything that may have once distinguished the US from “third world” countries is gone.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        I think @TranquilTurbulence pretty neatly established one big different - Americans produce far more waste than any actually impoverished country.

        We just live poor in order to afford all those extra landfills.