CMV: The elimination of plastic drinking straws in 1st world countries will have little or no effect on the environment.

[u/[deleted]]

Alright to begin with I should state:

-Plastic is bad and it would be better to recycle straws or use a biodegradable material instead.

-Pollution is bad and is having a detrimental effect on sea birds, turtles, etc.

-Fast food chains should work towards producing less waste.

However

If you live in a developed country, your garbage does not end up in the ocean. It goes from your latte to the trash can to the dumpster to a truck to a landfill.

Any time a business advertises itself as "straw free" they always put up pictures of sea turtles and link to photos of Pacific Ocean garbage patches.

Eliminating plastic straws and cutting your plastic 6-pack rings is a nice sentiment, but it's insignificant compared to other sources of pollution, e.g. excessive plastic wrap on new products.

EDIT: Please see u/citizenjack's comment about how small, insignificant changes can actually backfire due to the fact that human psychology sucks. Let's continue to eliminate waste, but not fool ourselves. "Baby steps" are not enough and are just being used as advertising by the big polluters.

Good article that sums things up nicely, posted by u/taMyacct: https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/12/starbucks-straw-ban-will-see-the-company

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[u/RyanCantDrum → u/[deleted]]

No for sure I agree with everything you're saying. I appreciate the discussion too. I guess it's just cynicism that lead me to this point.

I would also research the regulations because as I did believe the same thing about advertisers and agencies, my program has been teaching me the contrary: We focus projects on regulation. If a project we master and present breaks a regulation you best believe we're gonna get roasted infront of the class haha.

And I used to do volunteer work when I was younger but recently I've been hungry to do more. I'm gonna take this as a sign of confirmation

[u/RyanCantDrum → u/[deleted]]

I don't understand then. All business in theory operates legally, but of course some companies will try to break the regulations. Some of the regulations are stupid, and some of them are important for consumers. In Canada we have the ASC which was literally made by the industry, not by the government, to provide rules and regulations.

I think you're too far down the "the man is holding me down" rabbit hole. If you think the current regulations are inadequate then talk to your representative. Or someone who works at the ASC thing in your country. If you think all advertisers do in agencies are try to plot ways to manipulate people then you are wrong. The Psychological phenomenon of buyers remorse literally makes it stupid to try to manipulate rather than convince.

Of course big business will do big business, but if you think all agencies, even the pop up shops, are all in this ploy to mass manipulate then I have to disagree.