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PALO ALTO, CA – Will the new law making California the first country to ban plastic straws be the last straw in the business world, or will customers reward their local restaurants? That's at least one issue that emerges from the bill, California Governor Jerry Brown has just signed on Thursday. The new law comes into effect on January 1, the day after the likely consumption of many fondant cocktails.
Plastic is part of everyday life and costs less to use and buy than paper. Go to Amazon.com, and you'll see how you can buy 100 plastic straws about a third cheaper than paper.
South Bay side-to-side business groups are evaluating the effect of the new law that applies to restaurants where guests sit. In 2019, customers will have to ask for a straw as they do for the water. AB1884 is not a prohibition as much as a restriction or an extra step.
"We did not oppose this bill, we appreciate the fact that the legislation allows consumers to make choices – they want a straw, they can ask for one," said the California Restaurant Association. Sharokina Shams.
"No one who needs a straw will be deprived of it," said California Senator Jerry Hill, who represents the counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara. "This is a good starting point for reducing the waste of this type of single-use plastic.The measure should encourage companies that are not covered by AB1884 to take into account their straw practices.
Hill sees the law as both a promotional tool and a legislative tool in raising awareness.
It may have worked already. Cody McClelland, of Barefoot Coffee in Campbell, said the store is "in transition" to ecological straws that are falling apart.
Erick Suarez of boul. In Los Gatos, the café said its place was not to be used as straw unless it asked for it, even though it was not a full-service restaurant.
C.J. Ericson, who works at the Milpitas Chamber of Commerce, said she was surprised to learn that the cruise she plans to take in December on Norwegian Cruiselines will ban all straws. She joked the other travelers who can "sell them on the bridge".
"How are you supposed to drink your margarita or strawberry daiquiri?" she said, listing other cruises such as even the Carnival Cruises party boat also banning straws.
Being in the business community, Ericson pondered the profitability of plastic exchange for paper in everyday life.
At what price should society pay to clean our beaches and oceans? The answer may be obvious for eco-conscious cities like Palo Alto.
Just ask the Girl Scouts Palo Alto. The youths launched a large-scale attack on sucking devices by calling local restaurants to stop using them. Troops were honored by the city last May for their "The Last Straw" campaign engaging 37 local restaurants to take the straw out of their businesses and thus the environment.
Watch:
"Our residents want something compostable, they understand that it is good for the environment," said Iris Chen, director of membership at the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce.
Chen does not think that there will be an economy in the restaurants that will have to buy less straws, but she thinks that restaurants are behind the idea of keeping plastic straws from the beaches and courtyards. ;water.
More than 500 million straws are used every day, 8.3 billion of which pollute the world's beaches each year, according to National Geographic reports.
The California Coastal Commission notes that straws represent the sixth cause of pollution on the state's beaches.
The first straw was invented in 1888 by a man who surrounded a pencil with strips of paper. The Smithsonian said it was a Mint Julep.
–Image via Brenda Knox
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