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California Considers $1,000 Fine for Waiters Offering Unsolicited Plastic Straws
Reason ^ | 01/25/2018 | Christian Britschgi

Posted on 01/25/2018 10:33:36 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Ian Calderon wants restaurateurs to think long and hard before giving you a straw.

Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California's lower house, has introduced a bill to stop sit-down restaurants from offering customers straws with their beverages unless they specifically request one. Under Calderon's law, a waiter who serves a drink with an unrequested straw in it would face up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

"We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans," Calderon explained in a press release.

This isn't just Calderon's crusade. The California cities of San Luis Obispo and Davis both passed straws-on-request laws last year, and Manhattan Beach maintains a prohibition on all disposable plastics. And up in Seattle, food service businesses won't be allowed to offer plastic straws or utensils as of July.

The Los Angeles Times has gotten behind the movement, endorsing straws-on-request policies in an editorial that also warned that "repetitive sucking may cause or exacerbate wrinkles on the lips or around the mouth." Celebrity astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson (always up for a little chiding) and Entourage star Adrian Grenier have appeared in videos where an octopus slaps them in the face for using a plastic straw.

The actual number of straws being used is unclear. Calderon, along with news outlets writing about this issue—from CNN to the San Francisco Chronicle—unfailingly state that Americans use 500 million plastic straws a day, many of them ending up in waterways and oceans. The 500 million figure is often attributed to the National Park Service; it in turn got it from the recycling company Eco-Cycle.

(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; fine; straws; waiters
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To: Tenacious 1

RE: California is killing the Plastic Straw Industry. I wonder how many jobs this will cost them?

Doesn’t matter to them, as long as they save Planet Earth... or as long as it saves one life...


81 posted on 01/25/2018 11:13:35 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: Moltke

Congratulations.

There aren’t many definitions that cause me to recoil in horror, but “felching” did the trick.


82 posted on 01/25/2018 11:14:41 AM PST by papertyger (Bulverism: it's not just for liberals anymore.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I would have to make it a point to ask for 3 straws each time. One for me, and one for each of my Emotional Support monkeys.
And BTW, one of them is undocumented.


83 posted on 01/25/2018 11:15:32 AM PST by Bitman
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To: WayneLusvardi
Yes, but paper straws cut down trees, killed the spotted owl, destroyed the rainforests, and created global warming (or maybe destroyed the ozone layer, I forget which...).

-PJ

84 posted on 01/25/2018 11:17:28 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: bkopto

Does anyone not realize that libs want to control every tiny part of your life?


85 posted on 01/25/2018 11:20:54 AM PST by nobamanomore
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To: SeekAndFind
"repetitive sucking may cause or exacerbate wrinkles on the lips or around the mouth."

That explains why a fresh young fruit so quickly turns into a wrinkled old vegetable.

86 posted on 01/25/2018 11:21:17 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Not a Romantic, not a hero worshiper and stop trying to tug my heartstrings. It tickles! (pink bow))
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To: SeekAndFind
"We need to create awareness around the issue of one-time use plastic...

Does this mean no more plastic knives and forks at LAX and SFO, or at baseball and football stadiums? I guess the difference is that the server isn't handing them one, they are in bins waiting for anyone to walk by and grab one.

-PJ

87 posted on 01/25/2018 11:21:26 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: catman67

In kindergarten, I kept my paper straw from one day so that I could be cool the next day and have 2 straws in my carton of milk. Wouldn’t you know it, the bratty girl sitting next to me tattled to the teacher, “Mrs. Smith, Bobby took 2 straws!”

I think she moved to California and is now in politics.


88 posted on 01/25/2018 11:22:09 AM PST by Quality_Not_Quantity (If we're going to look at nature to justify our actions, then I say let's start flinging poop around)
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To: SeekAndFind
Americans use 500 million plastic straws a day

Now wait a minute. There are only 325 million people in the US. So, so one and half times the entire population uses a straw EVERY SINGLE DAY?? I haven't used a straw in months. Who's been sucking up my straw use?

89 posted on 01/25/2018 11:23:13 AM PST by Hoffer Rand (God be greater than the worries in my life, be stronger than the weakness in my mind, be magnified.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The natural end point of one party rule.


90 posted on 01/25/2018 11:24:43 AM PST by headstamp 2 (My "White Privilege" is my work ethic.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Does that mean the waiter has to gain affirmative consent to offer a straw in a drink?


91 posted on 01/25/2018 11:25:16 AM PST by setha (It is past time for the United States to take back what the world took away.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Obey the Law. Well, except immigration law.........


92 posted on 01/25/2018 11:25:16 AM PST by 4Liberty (illegal immigration is a "process" crime too....)
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To: SeekAndFind

Because we say so thats why!


93 posted on 01/25/2018 11:27:09 AM PST by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism us truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: Hoffer Rand
Who's been sucking up my straw use?

Obviously, your SSN (social straw number) has been stolen and is being traded on the dark interwebs ....

94 posted on 01/25/2018 11:27:21 AM PST by BlueLancer (Black Rifle Coffee - Freedom, guns, tits, bacon, and booze!)
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To: Cecily

But criminals in CA illegally get sanctuary and all the benefits and freebies they can handle.


They’ve gone beyond that, spreading incentives to the general populace. Since 2014, miscreants can shoplift up to $950 worth of stuff and only be charged with a misdemeanor.


95 posted on 01/25/2018 11:27:42 AM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: unixfox
Why not just charge $1000.00 per straw? That would stop those evil straw users!

It's not the user being jailed, it's the waiter pushing straws who's in danger.

Pretty soon, kids will be dealing straws in the schoolyard.

-PJ

96 posted on 01/25/2018 11:28:03 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: hanamizu

the straw would become flaccid and useless before you finished.
= = = = = = = = = =

I was going to respond to this but I figured it was such a high, hanging curve that you are a mod trying to suck someone in....

<: <: <:


97 posted on 01/25/2018 11:30:10 AM PST by xrmusn ((6/98)""In todays world:::WE, THE USofA are Rudyard Kiplings 'Tommy'")
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To: BlueLancer

Don’t laugh, you know it’s coming. “Do you have a permit for that straw?”


98 posted on 01/25/2018 11:31:08 AM PST by Hoffer Rand (God be greater than the worries in my life, be stronger than the weakness in my mind, be magnified.)
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To: SeekAndFind; All

OK Folks, joking aside.... Just because it was “introduced” doesn’t mean it will get passed.

Is it too much for someone like me to hope that the California legislature will have enough common sense to REJECT this?


99 posted on 01/25/2018 11:31:19 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

100 posted on 01/25/2018 11:35:34 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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