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Restaurants that don't use plastic straws

Patrick Bench asks:

Best recommendations for restaurants that do not use single use straws in Boston? Is there a list available?

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Comments

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You could drink from the cup directly

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typical strawman argument.

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Go directly to hell. Do not collect $200.

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all the environmental regulations. Open sulfur pits...banned, too much pollution. Open flames...banned, not up to OSHA specs. Demons poking at you in perpetuity...think again buddy, them fuckers unionized and it's all no-show jobs now.

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How about smoothies and other blended drinks?

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Wow. What an inconsequential detail to obsess over. And I'm someone who brings tupperwares into restaurants to take home leftovers, instead of getting disposable containers.

Straws are a minuscule part of restaurant trash.

Better questions would be: Which restaurants generate the least trash per meal served? Or use the least energy on cooling/heating, refrigeration, cooking, and dishwashing per seat? Or are set up to encourage customers and employees to arrive without using a car?

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Plastic straws are really bad for the ocean. We use over 500 million every day in America, and most of those end up in our oceans, polluting the water and killing marine life. We want to encourage people to stop using plastic straws for good. If we don’t act now, by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

Right? Who cares about the effect of straws? Use more Uber to get to the restaurant!!

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Don't know where that quote is from, but I would place a substantial bet that we are not placing "most" of 500 million straws per day from America into the ocean.

That would be quite a few dump trucks full of only straws dumping them directly into the ocean...daily.

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500 million straws a day? So 2 per every adult in the country?

And we are dumping our trash in the ocean?

Reality check please.

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Yup! NO one is throwing trash into the ocean. Ever heard of the plastic patch?

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Sure people throw crap in the ocean every day - but not hundreds of millions of straws every day. Unless people are pulling straws out of the trash and throwing them in the ocean - that makes no sense.

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marine life and kills how many innocent creatures so we can sip Starbucks easier makes how much sense? Paper straws are coming, dude. Ask Seattle.

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Yea -- so poisonous that it gets implanted into humans for either temporary or permanent use on a daily basis

I guess we need to go back to bottles for blood plasma and whole blood instead of the disposable plastic bags. Glass syringes versus the disposable plastic ones in clinics and hospitals.

Makes a whole lot of sense

However, I will admit that beer tastes a whole lot better in glass than in a plastic cup

and I've heard [from Cheech and Chong] that a plastic bong is not nearly as mellifluous as a fine bit of glass blowing work done by a toked-up artisan

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https://psmag.com/environment/banning-straws-wont-save-the-oceans

^ talks about where 500million number came from, and suggests a different quantity.

And another article, if you agree with National Geographic.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/plastic-straws-ocean-trash-e...

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If you're picturing garbage trucks backing up to a cliff and dumping out everything, no that's (hopefully) not happening. But where do you think those straws end up?

The US has close to 325 million people, so it's less than 2 per person. Even if it's "only" 100 million straws per day, is that ok with you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch

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OK -- let's assume that there are 100 million straws consumed per day in the US for 300+ million people -- although that number is highly suspiciously high

What percentage of those 2 million straws from Greater Boston [using your %] get flushed, dumped on the city sidewalks, streets, parking lots, beaches, or are thrown directly into the harbor

Those are the only possible ones that can end up in the Atlantic Ocean from Greater Boston as any that are placed into the trash system get either burned, recycled or buried in landfills

So based on my personal experience with plastic straws [consuming drinks with them in restaurants or while walking about and observing others] -- I'm guessing we might generate an ocean going contingent of a few thousand per day

FuGGGetaboutit -- there are far more pressing matters which we ought to be concerned

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Just do your little bit? Don't act like someone will do it, or kick the can down to the next generation. Truly, what harm is a slight change causing you?

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What percentage of the plastic in restaurant trash is straws? We should focus our efforts where they will have the most benefit.

And my point was we should use *fewer* cars to get to restaurants. That includes Ubers. Again, a way to make a big difference.

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Wow. What an inconsequential detail to obsess over.

Projection much? Someone asked a question. There's no indication that anyone other than yourself is "obsessing" about it.

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They cared enough to ask for a list of restaurants, so they can choose where to eat based on this inconsequential detail.

And we're all focusing on it by participating in this discussion.

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I usually never leave the house without my List of Restaurants That Do Not Use Single Use Straws. But when I quick-changed to shorts this morning, I forgot to bring it with me. However, I do have my List of Every Bodega in NYC That Uses Biodegradable Inks On Their Takeout Bags on me. Would that be of any help to you . . ?

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My drinks Friday didn't include a straw (some places automatically give you one for drinks that can be drunk directly from cup) but did see others with stainless steel straws. Very good food too.

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Are metal straws sanitary? I'd think the spray in a dishwasher might not get to the entire inside surface, and it might take a bottle brush to get them clean.

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How else are you going to build your immune system?

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So the immunocompromised shouldn't be allowed to eat in restaurants?

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wasn't in the correct sarcasm font.

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This is the inside of a home dishwasher - soapy hot water everywhere for at least a half hour from above and below.
https://youtu.be/t3gwqcfB728

In a commercial kitchen, dishes are soaked and high pressure sprayed before being put in the dishwasher, which has HW temps of 180 degrees (home dishwashers boost the water from 120ish (or less) to around 140. If it were me, I’d also soak them in a sanitizer bath before putting in dishwasher. Only impediment from using these commercially is cost and risk of theft.

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so as to not emit evil evil carbon dioxide from running their lights...or for that matter so as to keep from .... by having light bulbs or CFLs or LED lights manufactured at all in those horrible polluting factories in China.

This anti-plastic kick the left is on would be quite a treat to watch if it weren't imposing on me the requirement to use inferior substitutes. The town of Brookline, at the behest of a town meeting member who lives in the biggest house on his street last year banned polyethylene product bags...you know the things you put loose produce in or wrap around packaged meat in case of leaks.

Well, they replaced them with "compostable" product bags that feel to the touch like poorly-made latex gloves and rip at the slightest application of pressure. While a proper polyethylene bag is able to hold a bunch of bananas or apples or corn on the cob without so much as puncturing, the replacements tear to pieces if you look at them funny. And one shouldn't be surprised, they're designed to be inferior to polyethylene in terms of strength.

So I figure I'll go to a Trader Joe's in the suburbs while I'm out there and lo and behold, the one in Framingham (which as far as I can tell has no bag ban) also has the idiot bags, probably on the grounds that TJs doesn't want to have the headache of two bag suppliers. All while other stores like Stop n Shop and Wegmans and the like outside Brookline still have normal product bags.

The green pinko with the biggest house on the block is probably laughing his ass off that his hard-on against polyethylene reaches beyond the town limits, but that just makes it a bigger form of theft in that it wastes my time with mandated inferior products.

Along the same vein, Waltham does not have a bag ban so the Home Depot on Third Avenue will still bag your hardware in plastic. Whereas hardware stores in towns with bag bans will cheap out and single-bag your stuff in paper. And even when they double-bag it...paper is inferior to plastic when the stuff in the bag is oddly-shaped, heavy and pointy, like most stuff out of a hardware store tends to be. And I have yet to go to a hardware store in a bag ban town without having the paper bag tear to pieces on me. That's theft too...it steals my time. And it steals my money because instead of lining my trash cans and my dirty laundry when I travel with thin grocery bags, I have to pay more for heavier gauge plastic trash bags...that also end up in the trash. Probably a net gain in plastic waste.

Oh, and BTW...nearly all of the plastic in the oceans you read about doesn't come from the US. It comes from the third world. So ban whatever you want here, it will have exactly zero effect on ocean pollution.

I have a strong suspicion that most of the people pushing for the bans have "people" to go to the hardware store for them. Hell, maybe they even have people get groceries for them, so they are more insulated from the consequences of their insanity then the rest of us are. But even if I rage at it, I understand it. These people have lead sheltered lives and have no real causes to fight for...so they have to invent enemies everywhere. It's a societal autoimmune disorder. A peanut allergy of the soul.

This year it's plastic bags and plastic bottles. Next year is looking like the year of the straw. After that...maybe it can be coffee, or PP&J sandwiches, or those little zip ties that you use to route the cables behind your desk. It'll just get more and more intrusive and more and more asinine. And at some point it'll get to the point that a constitutional amendment to ban towns from banning anything ever in perpetuity will win by a landslide at the ballot. Maybe in about five or ten years. Sooner if Trump wins in 2020.

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The bag replacement movement from plastic to hemp or plant based plastics is clearly designed to drive you crazier than you already are and has definitely triggered your sense of injustice at the thought of your porn mags and the latest issue of Stormfront slipping out of the cheap shit bag some rich asshole who has the money you'll never have forced on your local magazine vendor.

And once again, you put the ass in asinine. In case you hadn't noticed, this is becoming a third world country thanks to your like minded pals who think they have the high ground. For now.

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.

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Heading out to the Bay Area this weekend for a while!! I'll be sure to tell everyone you said hi!!

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Try the salted licorice at Munchies candy shop in Sausalito.

It totally doesn't taste like biting into solid ammonia. Pinky swear.

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There' starting to be a move to compostable straws, which are more expensive but dissolve in nature in about six months. I'm happy to use restaurants who buy those. They look and work just like regular straws. This may sound like a stupid statement but paper straws suck.

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The plastics companies, after realizing there's no money to be made in shit that lasts, have gotten you to believe that it's moral and righteous and warm and fuzzy to buy shit that's advertised as being designed not to last. Literally can't be stockpiled, literally must be thrown away and replaced with a new one when it decomposes per its planned obsolescence.

Time was, we called that wastefulness.

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do you require a safe, straw-filled space?

I see a consumer making an informed decision. I do believe that's the free market at work.

You don't have a problem with the free market.. do you??

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Who in the hell puts banana in a bag? To go in a bag for the ride home to be removed from both bags? It’s already wrapped!!! The correct answer if you don’t like the quality of the bags is to not use them for every frigging thing you buy. And if you don’t like the shopping bags you get now, bring one. All those bags you’re crying over missing (snowflake) will outlive your grandchildren before they even start to break down. Hear about that whale that died? He had dozens in his stomach and couldn’t eat. Didn’t need to die. The plastic in the oceans come from all of us. Unless you have another planet you can go to (don’t let us stop you) everyone has to do their parts, not just the countries you hold in such contempt. They’re probably better thought of now than this one with your caviar hero anyway.

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Try these , buy them once and be done with the drama of baggery. Just a suggestion , not a dig at you. Long live the legand of Romulus and Remus.

Hunter's Tote Bag, Open-Top $35.00 , at the Bean.

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Be Best, Roman. Be Best.

No matter where the plastic in the ocean is coming from, we should do what's right. Just get yourself some reusable bags already and quit your whining. If you're worried about leaks from meat products, use cloth and wash them with your laundry.

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It doesn't matter where the plastic is coming from, and it doesn't matter if my changing my behavior will have any effect (no matter how small) on how much plastic goes in the ocean, but what matters is you forcing me to change my behavior against my own interests so that you can feel good about yourself.

Why don't you mind your own business as opposed to forcing me to take part in your fantasia of overpriced and subpar solutions for nonexistent problems.

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uphill in the winter to school, BOTH ways!

whiney whine whine.

I'm just quoting your First Lady, Roman. Be Best.

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So now MA faithful want to ban straws? Is there anything residents of the friendly free state of MA can use/have? How else can we hamper the lives of average citizens?

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Oh don't you worry your sweet heart, the NannyState has more in store for us.

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that we ban trash pickup. If people have to wallow in their filth, they'll be more judicious about not getting things they don't need.

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It's not called a "ban", cupcake, it's called pay per throw and haul it yourself, and it works.

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I mean ban it all. No transfer stations, no private trash pickup, no nothing. Shit goes in, but it don't come out.

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So now MA faithful want to ban straws?

I'm sorry, can you show me anywhere in the original post that talks about banning straws? Oh that's right, you can't. All you can do is show someone asking where they could find a restaurant that didn't serve plastic straws, and that sent you off the deep end. Typical Republican.

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Right-winger, talking about necessary goods for living like housing and healthcare: THE FREE MARKET!!! PEOPLE SHOULD SHOP FOR GOOD DEALS!!! CAN'T IMPEDE FREE TRADE SELL BUY MONEY MONEY MONEY THE MARKET

A human: I want to support businesses that support sustainability practices.

Right-winger: OMFG YOU WANT TO CONTROL US ALL AND BAN STRAWS

dude. chill.

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Best recommendations for restaurants that use edible, glow-in-the-dark straws in Boston? Is there a list available?

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I’ve been thinking a lot about this - I think it’s importsnffor major players to get on board to do the r&d for replacement straws. McDonalds and Dunkin’ are two that come to mind - have either weighed in?

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a highly-effective measure. I expect there are many other tactics that restaurants could focus on to reduce their environmental impact more. But just because it's a little thing doesn't make it worthless. Walk and chew gum, etc.

Maybe I missed it here, but am I the first one to note that Seattle just banned single-use plastics citywide?

I suppose one could take the right-winger's self-absorbed attitude: "Ehh, I'll be dead by the time our pillaging and poisoning of the environment for profit and personal convenience really comes home to roost. Let the grandkids cry about it. I got mine."

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I suppose we could force everyone back to the fields like they tried in Cambodia a while back. That certainly cut down on ecological footprint.

What's that? That's an extreme. We wouldn't do that? Because environmental impact and quality of life are two distinct values that we may choose to balance as we please, and there's no difference between placing more weight on one than the other beyond a matter of opinion? That's right.

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Plastic straws to the Khmer Rouge in one huge, overreacting bound.

You act like no replacement for plastic straws exists. Many exist, and the original question was simply a private individual making an informed choice about where to spend their money.
You hear that? That's your market speaking.

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acknowledging how we're destroying the planet, and taking tiny steps to fix it: practically the same as Pol Pot.

The Dear Leader thinks anthropogenic climate change is a Chinese hoax, tries to bring back coal, lets China lap us on sustainable energy technologies, and puts a naked grifter in charge of the EPA, giving toxic industries free rein to poison our air and water. Opposing that is pretty much identical to supporting a genocidal Maoist regime.

Surely, it's a slippery slope from "no plastic straws" to killing fields.

You make some really good points there.

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In fact, you might not be paying attention either. If you can take my plastic straws in the name of environmentalism, and my plastic bags, and my parking space, and my car, and my wood-burning stove, then you can take anything you want.

If a small power-grab isn't contested, the next one will be bigger, and bigger still.

No. Do you know why not? Because it really does lead to the killing fields in the end. Ask our friends in Venezuela how their twenty year experiment in socially responsible government turned out.

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to take all your strawmen and put them into the furnace, too.

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If we’re not careful, they’ll be ripping children from their mothers arms and detaining citizens without cause. Oh wait...

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