Plastic straw ban heats upPlastic straw ban heats up
At Starbuck’s annual general meeting today, activist group As You Sow will present a proposal urging the company to phase out the estimated two billion green plastic straws it uses each year.
March 21, 2018

Got a problem with your paper straw falling apart before you finish your drink? Drink faster! That’s the solution being offered by several drink companies when asked about the flimsy paper straws that are supposed to be substitutes for plastic straws.
It seems that the ban on plastic straws coming to a city near you is causing quite a stir. A front-page article in the Wall Street Journal on March 20, “The War on Straws Is Coming to a Bar Near You,” detailed the history of the straw and the necessity of straws in certain cases. For example, the article by Cara Lombardo cited a dentist who said if a person is drinking anything but water, they should be using a straw. Some people won’t put their lips on the rim of a drinking glass for fear the glass is not sterile enough.
Paper straws don’t hold up well, especially if it’s taking awhile to slurp down your milkshake. They also don’t work well as stirrers in drinks. Lombardo noted in her article that at one event sponsored by Smirnoff and Tanqueray by Diageo PLC (which dropped plastic straws), people “downed Moscow Mules quickly to prevent paper straws from disintegrating.” The WSJ article also said that one person noted his paper straw “wasn’t bad for 10 minutes—until it started absorbing his Coke Zero.”
That sounds like great advice: Guzzle your cocktails so your straw lasts!
The WSJ article quoted actor Adrian Grenier in a news release championing the cause: “We see straws as a ‘gateway plastic’ in understanding the pollution problem.”
Grenier was also named as the presenter for the activist group As You Sow’s shareholder resolution in Starbucks’ annual general meeting being held today (March 21). In a March 20 release from As You Sow, Grenier was called the UN Environment Good Will Ambassador. He will ask Starbucks to “take bold action to reduce its global plastic footprint.”
Specifically, said the release, shareholder Proposal #5 asks the company to phase out the estimated two billion green plastic straws it uses each year, which are non-recyclable and can harm marine life. “This proposal will be presented against a backdrop of environmental action from Starbucks’ corporate peers in recent months,” said the release. “The resolution requests aggressive plans for Starbucks to meet its packaging reuse and recycling goals the company set nine years ago but has failed to implement.”
As You Sow Senior Vice President, Conrad MacKerron, commented: “Investors should be concerned about the company’s lack of action. Starbucks stands to lose a major competitive edge when rivals like McDonald’s make global recycling commitments. The company must also take seriously the considerable environmental damage that occurs when its plastic straws and lids are swept into waterways around the world.”
What all of this concern about plastic straws getting into the ocean fails to take into consideration is the human factor. Plastic straws do not throw themselves into waterways, ending up in the nostril of a sea turtle (a famously shared video). Humans have a responsibility to discard items—particularly single-use items such as straws, lids and cups—in the proper way.
Obviously, paper straws, even if thrown into the ocean, will disintegrate quickly as they did in one man’s Coke Zero, leaving no trace of having ever existed. Plastic was designed specifically to maintain its strength and durability.
The war being waged against Starbucks’ use of plastic in its business by the activist group began nearly a decade ago, and the latest “shareholder resolution” notes that the company has failed to meet its pledge made in 2008: By 2015, 100% of its cups would be reusable or recyclable; 25% of beverages would be served in reusable containers; and front-of-store recycling containers would be placed in owned and operated stores.
“The company has fallen far short on these goals. Most of the four billion paper cups it serves every year still end up in landfills because they are not recyclable due to a plastic coating that requires special processing and lack of infrastructure to recycle cups,” noted the resolution to be presented today by Grenier.
As You Sow’s resolution notes that even if plastic items degrade, they end up as small particles “that birds and marine animals mistake for food, resulting in illness and death. Our packaging that degrades in waterways can transfer hazardous chemicals to animals and potentially to humans.”
Corporations never ignore these contrived shareholder resolutions by activist groups who are funded by non-scientific grantors and individuals. Given the threat of bad press that As You Sow sows in the pubic media if these resolutions are not passed, shareholders typically pass them with a “commitment” to try and solve the perceived problem of plastics, when they obviously know human littering of valuable plastics is the real problem.
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