Plastic Straws to be Discontinued on Celebrity

[mom says]

Also, Celebrity will be saving some money by not purchasing plastic straws on their nine ships.

 

Really? Apparently you missed the part where paper straws cost more than plastic ones. The only way the cruise lines would save money would be to get rid of straws entirely. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with that. But there'd likely be riots on board if that happened. :rolleyes:

[Globehoppers]

The issue with this thread is Celebrity doing away with plastic straws. Since they don't dump any plastic into the oceans and send all their trash to landfills, how is doing away with plastic straws on Celebrity affecting the turtles, manatees, or dolphins? It's all a "feel good, hey look at me" exercise. :rolleyes:

 

Last year the world produced 500,000,000 tons of plastic, much of it ended up in land fills or in the ocean. And the amount produced each year is growing. The major cruise lines have started programs to end plastics in 2019, to include plastic bottles on board.

[lovecruzin]

Azamara has stopped using plastic straws, except on request. As far as I know they have not started using paper ones. I prefer plastic to paper since they don't get soggy, but I won’t be bringing my own.

I always ask for a straw for iced drinks, nothing like getting to the bottom of the iced tea or whatever and having all of the ice come crashing to the front of the glass and the beverage running down your face and onto your clothes. :o

[RocketMan275]

Last year the world produced 500,000,000 tons of plastic, much of it ended up in land fills or in the ocean. And the amount produced each year is growing. The major cruise lines have started programs to end plastics in 2019, to include plastic bottles on board.

 

We should be careful to ensure that this replacement doesn't create more problems than it solves. The world is full of well intentioned programs that have gone astray.

[Duanerice1]

I always ask for a straw for iced drinks, nothing like getting to the bottom of the iced tea or whatever and having all of the ice come crashing to the front of the glass and the beverage running down your face and onto your clothes. :o

 

Ha ha, I have that visual. We've all done it haven't we.

[hcat]

Just noticed that Tervis Tumblers ...now offer a steel version...no plastic and they have nice motifs. This may be a good alternative for some folks.

 

We are stocking up on the multi pack tumbler straws...just in case they are phased out! They are not single use but who knows where the war on plastic will go!

[Wine-O]

We should be careful to ensure that this replacement doesn't create more problems than it solves. The world is full of well intentioned programs that have gone astray.

 

Ah, yes, the unintended consequences. Remember way back when, environmentalists thought paper was bad because we were killing trees? We had to do away with paper bags and go to plastic. Unbeknownst to all the rocket scientists who made this decision, they actually harvest trees to make paper, and plant more trees than they harvest. So, now we have plastic, and plastic is bad for the environment, so we are back to paper.

 

Then it was the plastic water bottles. The big concern back then was they were filling up the land fills too quickly. So we had to recycle them, and because they were a derivative of oil and oil is bad for the environment, we were going to destroy the planet. It's just one vicious circle that never seems to end. :rolleyes:

 

Can't wait to see what Lisa comes up with next.

[Cruise Raider]

Just a minor digression, but just read that one of the hotel/casino corporations in Las Vegas was also doing away with automatically handing out straws in the drinks they serve. I was amazed by the number of plastic straws that were used on a daily basis.

It wouldn't bother me in the least little bit to not have a straw but I do understand that some people with sensitive teeth may need them.

[Denny01]

We should be careful to ensure that this replacement doesn't create more problems than it solves. The world is full of well intentioned programs that have gone astray.

 

Ah, yes, the unintended consequences. Remember way back when, environmentalists thought paper was bad because we were killing trees? We had to do away with paper bags and go to plastic. Unbeknownst to all the rocket scientists who made this decision, they actually harvest trees to make paper, and plant more trees than they harvest. So, now we have plastic, and plastic is bad for the environment, so we are back to paper.

This all sounds quite disturbing and a real concern over inadvertent impacts due to wrongheaded conservation, but I don’t think it has much to do with reality. Environmentalists didn’t insist that paper was dangerous to the environment using too many trees and moved to using plastic. We useplastic because it was cheaper and lasted longer (unfortunately much much longer and doesn’t decompose) than paper products. And most paper, especially used for paper bags, are now recycled paper. Yup, business decisions moved us to plastics; but business decisions also moved and moving us to recyclable products taking environmental approaches. And by the way, ‘environmentalists’ use cloth bags not paper.

 

If you don’t think recycling and cutting down on plastics is good, don’t. But please stop trying to convince others that conservation is useless and making up history that didn’t really occur.

 

By the way, I AM a rocket scientist, or at least was......

 

Den

[Wine-O]

 

If you don’t think recycling and cutting down on plastics is good, don’t. But please stop trying to convince others that conservation is useless and making up history that didn’t really occur.

 

By the way, I AM a rocket scientist, or at least was......

 

Den

Hi Denny, nice to see you on the boards again. Hope to see you on a future cruise.

 

Conservation is fine, but doing away with plastic straws?

 

BTW, did you stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night? ;p

[wwcruisers]

Thank you, Den! (Couldn't have said it better, myself...;))

[bunnyette]

Good, all the sea creatures will be very happy.

 

 

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[Oville]

Thank you, Den! (Couldn't have said it better, myself...;))

 

So right Suzanne.

[RocketMan275]

This all sounds quite disturbing and a real concern over inadvertent impacts due to wrongheaded conservation, but I don’t think it has much to do with reality. Environmentalists didn’t insist that paper was dangerous to the environment using too many trees and moved to using plastic. We useplastic because it was cheaper and lasted longer (unfortunately much much longer and doesn’t decompose) than paper products. And most paper, especially used for paper bags, are now recycled paper. Yup, business decisions moved us to plastics; but business decisions also moved and moving us to recyclable products taking environmental approaches. And by the way, ‘environmentalists’ use cloth bags not paper.

 

If you don’t think recycling and cutting down on plastics is good, don’t. But please stop trying to convince others that conservation is useless and making up history that didn’t really occur.

 

By the way, I AM a rocket scientist, or at least was......

 

Den

 

Stop with the strawman arguments. No one here is arguing that "conservation is useless".

 

For your reading pleasure.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/to-tote-or-note-to-tote/498557/

[cruise kitty]

This all sounds quite disturbing and a real concern over inadvertent impacts due to wrongheaded conservation, but I don’t think it has much to do with reality. Environmentalists didn’t insist that paper was dangerous to the environment using too many trees and moved to using plastic. We useplastic because it was cheaper and lasted longer (unfortunately much much longer and doesn’t decompose) than paper products. And most paper, especially used for paper bags, are now recycled paper. Yup, business decisions moved us to plastics; but business decisions also moved and moving us to recyclable products taking environmental approaches. And by the way, ‘environmentalists’ use cloth bags not paper.

 

If you don’t think recycling and cutting down on plastics is good, don’t. But please stop trying to convince others that conservation is useless and making up history that didn’t really occur.

 

By the way, I AM a rocket scientist, or at least was......

 

Den

 

thank you, :)

[The_Big_M]

We should be careful to ensure that this replacement doesn't create more problems than it solves. The world is full of well intentioned programs that have gone astray.

 

Seems the original program has already gone well astray.

[katysuerx]

I’m thrilled with this announcement. We just got off of the Eclipse in May and this was a comment I specifically shared with Celebrity.

 

Get rid of the plastic straws!!! With EVERY SINGLE DRINK we ordered came a brand new plastic straw!!! And no way to give them back because they were “open”. We even specifically requested to the server “we don’t need a straw” - I think it was engrained into their brains “insert straw into drink”. Even worse was when the drinks were delivered with the straw and they realized what they had done and just removed them. Talk about waste!

 

I’m all for people getting straws who need or want them. I’m hoping the move to paper straws (which are more expensive) will lead to people actually having to ask for one, as opposed to it being automatically provided.

 

THANK YOU CELEBRITY (and RCI) FOR LISTENING!!! ❤️❤️❤️

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lady Chew]

I prefer to use a straw when drinking anything cold, but will happily switch to paper straws. I remember using them many, many, many long years ago, and they always got soggy & gross, so I hope they have improved the quality by now!

 

Back in the 80s/90s, my children had reusable plastic straws that we washed & reused for years. I wonder if you can still find them?? I think I'd rather use a reusable plastic straw then a steel one.

[Cruise Junky]

I'm not sure if anyone posted this, if so I missed it. It's not just Celebrity, they're being banned from all RCI lines.

[Denny01]

Hi Denny, nice to see you on the boards again. Hope to see you on a future cruise.

 

Conservation is fine, but doing away with plastic straws?

 

BTW, did you stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night? ;p

Hi Wine-0!!! Hope we can join up again, and yes, doing away with plastic straws and announcing it is a bit of a play to ‘ain’t I great’ but as most say, ‘step by step’. And Yes! I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express and built a fine, fine rocket but unfortunately it just sits there....kind of like me.

 

I’m listing my future cruises just in case we can meet up.

 

Den

[Honey-B]

Living in Scotland they brought in the use of paper straws a few months ago, if it helps the environment I’m all for it.

[CruiserFromMaine]

Stop with the strawman arguments.

 

That’s funny!

[hrhdhd]

][/color]Back in the 80s/90s' date=' my children had reusable plastic straws that we washed & reused for years. I wonder if you can still find them?? I think I'd rather use a reusable plastic straw then a steel one.[/color']

 

Tervis and other brands sell reusable plastic straws. They were all over Bed Bath & Beyond the other day when I dropped in.

[Lady Chew]

Oh, thanks, I'll have to go check those out! We have a brand new Bed Bath & Beyond about 1 mile from our house!

[webecruzin2]

I believe it's silly and unfortunate based upon my observations of the continuing scare mongering of the environmentalist movement most of which is just an attempt to convince the gullible to donate their money. JMHO.

 

 

Scare mongering, as with everything else, that's their M.O.

 

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