Industry pushes back
Banning plastic straws will take more than just telling the food industry to suck it up. Elaine S. Povich ,of Stateline.org, reports from Washington.
EVEN as momentum to ban plastic straws grows and individual cities ban their use, objections from the plastics industry, restaurants and disability advocates have derailed or delayed legislation in California, Hawaii and New York.
HARD on the heels of banning plastic bags, states and cities are being pressed by environmentalists to eliminate plastic straws — but objections from the plastics industry, restaurants and disability advocates have derailed or delayed some proposed bans.
Three states — California, Hawaii and New York — have considered plastic straw legislation in 2018. Hawaii’s died, and the other two are pending.
Seattle, Miami Beach, Oakland and more than a dozen other cities, about half of them in California, have either banned plastic straws altogether or required customers who want a straw to ask for it. New York City is also considering a ban.
The bans are not frivolous, as plastic has been found in fish, in the bellies of seabirds and in fresh drinking water, but at least one expert in the field of ‘‘marine plastic’’ suggests they may not make much of a dent in the problem.
Kara Lavender Law, a research professor of oceanography at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, said there was plenty of evidence thatthrowaway plastics were getting into the ocean, but was not convinced a plastic straw ban was the way to go.
‘‘Bans on straws are perceived as sort of lowhanging fruit, unnecessary items,’’ she said.
‘‘Whether a ban is the right way to approach it is arguable. I’m not sure it’s the way we are going to solve the problem, but it’s an indication of the public will and the political will.’’
Law and several others wrote a 2017 research paper on plastics for the journal Science Advances, estimating that since the 1960s about 6300 million metric tons of plastic waste has been generated worldwide. Only 9% of that has been recycled, 12% incinerated, and the rest of it dumped in landfills or directly into the environment.
Hawaii, which touts its pristine coasts, seemed like a logical target for a plastic straw ban this year. A Bill to implement one was introduced in January by state Senator Mike Gabbard, a Democrat, and the legislation sailed through the agriculture and environment committee, of which he is chairman. It failed to clear the judiciary and ways and means committees, where it was crossreferred.
Objections came from the Hawaii Food Industry Association, the Hawaii Restaurant Association, the Retail Merchants Association and the American Chemistry Council, all of which presented testimony in hearings on the Bill.
‘‘We all need to get better at reducing waste and educating the general public in proper disposal of trash, but this Bill is not the solution,’’ the restaurant group’s statement read. ‘‘The alternate for plastic straws, whether it’s paper or reusable, is really not that available. Is the next step banning all disposable utensils?’’
Environmental groups such as StrawFree, which is pushing reusable straws made from bamboo, say yes. They note that reusable water bottles are becoming a popular alternative to plastic and suggest that reusable utensils could become popular as well.
The American Chemistry Council also opposes plastic straw bans and recently suggested that an ‘‘optin’’ plan, under which diners must ask for a straw, is a better solution.
Private companies are getting into the act, too. Bon Appetit, a chain of a thousand eateries, recently announced it would ban plastic straws. But McDonald’s stockholders voted down a proposal backed by consumer watchdog group SumOfUs calling for the company to make efforts to ‘‘develop and implement substitutes for plastic straws’’.
McDonald’s uses 95 million straws a day in the United States, the watchdog group says. In opposing the proposal, McDonald’s said it continued to look for ‘‘sustainable alternatives for plastic straws globally’’.
In fact, it is phasing in paper straws in the United Kingdom after the UK banned plastic straws. But it urged a ‘‘no’’ vote in the United States, saying the proposal was ‘‘unnecessary, redundant as to the Company’s current practices and initiatives, and has the potential for a diversion of resources with no corresponding benefit to the Company, our customers and our shareholders’’.
Gabbard intends to bring the Bill up again in 2019, thinking strong environmental support may build more momentum then.
‘‘Optin could be considered as a compromise, but my goal at this point would be to go for the ban,’’ he said.
‘‘Although we may have the optin as a last resort.’’
The New York City plastic straw ban Bill, introduced by Democratic Councilman Rafael Espinal, of Brooklyn, had its first hearing in June, picking up support from Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. In an oped for the New York Daily News, Espinal and colleagues noted that at least 65 restaurants in the city had signed on to a campaign to do away with plastic straws.
‘‘As New Yorkers, we see the impact of our fastpaced lifestyle in the plastic waste that litters the avenues and subway tracks that crisscross our great city, making its way into waterways . . . Plastic straws are a great place to begin turning that trend around,’’ Espinal wrote.
Many disability advocates oppose straw bans, saying paper straws and reusable straws may not work as well for disabled people.
Jessica Denise Grono, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, who has cerebral palsy, said that without a straw, ‘‘I’d be forced to have someone pour a drink in my mouth. Only half would go in. A straw gives me a less messy and independent way to drink.’’ She said she was not opposed to the optin proposals.
In California, the optin already has become the fallback position. Unlike some of the city ordinances, the Bill in the legislature would provide for straws only on request only in sitdown restaurants. Takeoutonly restaurants could continue to hand out straws to all customers.
The Bill passed the Assembly in May and is headed for the Senate.
‘‘I’m not trying to get rid of plastic straws,’’ insisted Majority Leader Ian Calderon, a Democrat and sponsor of the Bill.
‘‘I want to help us be a little more responsible with singleuse plastics. I want to raise awareness to make sure people are aware of the detrimental effects on our environment.’’
But Assemblyman Matthew Harper, a Republican from Orange County, said Calderon’s Bill was a smokescreen to eventually ‘‘have an outright ban of plastic straws’’. He said the Bill was another way for government to try to control behaviour.
‘‘I’m for folks being good stewards of the environment, but that doesn’t mean the Government has to tell you how to do everything every day,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s ideologically fashionable to be opposed to anything that’s plastic. I represent a coastal district that includes Laguna Beach. I’d like to see more enforcement of litter laws.’’
❛I’m for folks being good stewards of the environment, but that doesn’t mean the Government has to tell you how to do everything every day❜
— Assemblyman Matthew Harper