By ARTHUR VIDRO
Want to make a fortune? Re-invent the paper straw.
My crystal ball shows a future with stores collecting fees for those plastic bags that contain your purchases; and the disappearance of the plastic straw. Which is fine by me.
Our nation’s history is filled with products that have proven harmful, either to people or the environment. Such products often get discontinued or banned.
For instance, I remember when lead was removed from gasoline. At first, we would have to order “unleaded” gasoline at the filling station. “Regular” gasoline was still available and still contained lead. Nowadays, “regular” gasoline refers to unleaded.
I remember when plastic bags started supplanting paper sacks in supermarkets. They quickly became the “regular” bags and now you have to go out of your way to ask for paper.
Ecological changes that are the wave of the future usually take root in California or in prosperous areas such as Suffolk County, New York.
For instance, recycling. In our neck of the woods, recycling is totally voluntary. I pay a little extra to my trash collector for recycling services. But in other areas recycling is mandatory, and it is against the law to put plastic bottles in your regular trash. Local governments determine punishments (usually fines) for those who do not obey the recycling rules.
Some municipalities give to residents recycling buckets (they look like color-coded half-size plastic garbage cans), and require that all mandated substances (usually metal cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles) go into these bins.
Some communities in Suffolk County have full recycling available, including public bins for folks to voluntarily bring spent batteries and even exhausted toothpaste tubes.
Plastic straws are cheap to make and quite useful, but they do not biodegrade. They last much longer than a human life, clutter up our landfills, and if they reach the oceans harm our marine life.
As a kid, I was the last holdout for paper straws. Other kids would make fun, for I was not keeping up with the times. But until the last box disappeared from the supermarket shelf, I stuck to paper straws, which admittedly become soggy and then nonfunctional from prolonged use.
Now plastic straws are on their way out. Some restaurant chains have announced plans to phase them out, even though satisfactory replacements are not yet available. Government is getting into the action too.
Because gorgeous oceans are good for tourism, and polluted oceans hurt commerce, Hawaii is considering statewide legislation to ban most plastics at restaurants. It might become the first state to prohibit all restaurants (both fast-food and regular) from using plastic drink bottles, plastic utensils, plastic bags, and plastic straws.
Some such bans already exist, but at a local level only.
In Berkeley, California, patrons of restaurants and coffee shops who don’t bring their own reusable cup for their beverage will have to pay a 25-cent fee for a disposable single-use cup. That ordinance has already been approved by city officials eager to eliminate restaurant waste, but it will not take effect until January 2020.
Berkeley is on the east coast of San Francisco Bay. On the bay’s west coast, San Francisco has approved a nearly identical measure.
There is no history of recycling legislation on the national level. It’s a local matter.
But what happens if city governments and state governments disagree?
In Oklahoma, legislators are considering – but have not yet voted on – legislation that would PREVENT cities and towns from imposing fees on single-use bags, be they plastic or paper.
In North Dakota, the state Legislature has already passed a bill that would prohibit communities from restricting the use of – or charging a fee for – plastic bags, plastic straws, plastic cups, or other plastic containers. The chap who introduced the bill, representative Dan Ruby, happens to own a waste-hauling business.
It has become good public relations for companies to join the ecological bandwagon, even if their hearts aren’t in it.
Gillette is ballyhooing that it has teamed up with a company called TerraCycle to handle the recycling of disposable razors, replaceable blades, and plastic packaging. To its credit, the Gillette program applies to all razors and cartridges, not just the ones manufactured by Gillette.
But the program is not a bed of roses.
To participate, a consumer first has to go to Gillette’s website and sign up. Only then can you generate the necessary label to send the package to TerraCycle. This is a tracking label, not a postage-paid label. The consumer will pay for the shipping.
In the meantime, the program disqualifies folks who don’t use, or aren’t comfortable using, computers; those folks who don’t have a printer; and even those folks who do use computers and printers but don’t have the necessary labels meant to be fed into a printer.
Why not just publish the mailing address and let consumers take it from there? I guess in case folks start shipping improper, dangerous, or illegal substances, the firms want the ability to track items back to the sender.
In the meantime, Gillette gets your e-mail address and any other information it demands so it can market to you in perpetuity. I’m not going to take part, because I don’t want Gillette to know anything about me.
Many folks, though, don’t give a fig about privacy. But they will refrain from participating, because they won’t be willing to spring for the postage.
At least that’s my prediction.
I also predict that whoever can invent a cheap paper straw that doesn’t become soggy and limp, will make a huge fortune.
If you have consumerism questions, send them to Arthur Vidro care of this newspaper, which publishes his column every weekend.
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