Whole Foods Has Announced That They Too Will Ban The Plastic Straw
(NYP)–This could be the last straw for Whole Foods customers.
The supermarket chain announced on Monday that it’s eliminating plastic straws from all stores in the US, Canada and the UK beginning in July
Instead, shoppers at the bougie market’s juice bars and cafes will have to suck on flimsy, eco-friendly paper straws.
Plastic straws will still be available for customers with disabilities, Whole Foods Market said.
The Amazon-owned chain has also reduced the size of its produce bags — which now contain 70% less plastic, reps said.
One more nail in the coffin for good ole polyethylene terephthalate, or “plastic” for the lay person. Whole Foods is following in the foot prints of socially and environmentally corporations like McDonalds by banning the plastic straw. Very on-brand for Whole Foods. The company known for being environmentally and socially conscious while also providing packaging that prevents their customers from doing jobs that are beneath them like peeling their own fruit
Now look. I LOVE Earth. I’m on the record as being a huge Earth guy.
I definitely want people to study and think about the best ways to keep the planet healthy, beautiful, and viable. Gotta live here, no matter what Bezos and that fucking weirdo Elon Musk say. Here is the thing though…people don’t know anything about anything. I am all for trying to keep straws out of the ocean. But nobody can say for sure that paper is better than plastic. Amazon was patting themselves on the back for reducing the plastic bag usage by Whole Foods by 70% since they took over the company. Well, there’s plenty of studies that suggest otherwise. Paper product manufacturing creates 70% more air pollution, takes 4x as much energy to produce it, uses 3x more water in production(obviously), and doesn’t even breakdown in landfills that much faster than plastic. That’s according to some scientists. Now, I don’t know what the exact right answer is. People smarter than me need to figure out the best solution to this debate and they need to be careful about it rather just taking one small measure for PR purposes. And while smart people are figuring that out, LET ME DRINK OUT OF A FUCKING PLASTIC STRAW.
