Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t CFACT – Legoland has demonstrated their commitment to reducing the global burden of waste plastic, with a token ban of plastic drinking straws.
Legoland will discontinue use of plastic straws
By Gary White
Posted Nov 27, 2018 at 5:10 PM
Updated Nov 27, 2018 at 5:10 PM…
Merlin Entertainments, corporate owner of the Legoland parks, recently announced that it will phase out the use of plastic straws at all of its attractions by the end of 2018.
“Legoland Florida Resort is committed to helping the environment wherever possible,” Legoland spokesman Shawn Mikus said by email. “The park is currently phasing out all single-use plastic straws, and by Dec. 31, there will not be any single-use plastic straws or plastic lids in the park.”
After Dec. 31, Legoland will use paper straws, which will be available upon request. Mikus said plastic straws will still be available by request for guests with specific paper allergies or dietary restrictions.
Merlin Entertainments has already eliminated plastic straws at its attractions in Australia and New Zealand and at Chessington World of Adventures in the United Kingdom, as reported by Business Green. Merlin operates more than 120 theme parks and tourist attractions worldwide, in addition to 18 hotels and six villages in 25 countries.
…
Read more: https://www.theledger.com/news/20181127/legoland-will-discontinue-use-of-plastic-straws
I’m shocked – how can a company like lego continue to use or produce *any* plastic products? Scientists tell us plastic degradation emits greenhouse gasses, and creates micro plastic pollution which probably hurts dolphins.
A token ban on plastic drinking straws simply isn’t good enough, for a company of green conscience which manufactures vast quantities of plastic products. Lego’s products are less than essential to the global economy. They could fall on their corporate sword, and immediately cease production of ecocidal plastic products.
Alternatively they could grow a pair, and call out the plastic scare for the nonsense it is.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The world’s plastic waste problem has been solved so w do not need to deal with it any more. Thank you so much, Lego-land.
So, if I have this virtue signaling correct, Legos (made of plastic) no longer uses plastic straws.
I’m filing this under “good to know”.
Ok, question of the day.
How come plastic can cause harm to everything on the planet, except humans? We have so much plastic in the house and food stuffs, yet nobody cares less that almost all foods are contained and packaged in plastic?
How much plastic do we consume on a daily basis? I bet it’s a lot more than a dolphin does.
“How come plastic can cause harm to everything on the planet, except humans?”
There’s actually a large movement against consuming one form of plastic used in plexible food containers, claiming it mimics and inerferes with hormone processing in the body—there are actually labels saying “BPA-free.” There is also a move afoot against plastic microparticles found in and scrubbed off of “miracle sponges” or “miracle erasers” and cleaning cloths, which gets into the sea and perhaps harms fish. One big country in Europe just banned it.
And there is a small movement that claims that the sort of plastic found coating tin cans and cardboard might be hormonally dangerous, and recommends buying unprocessed food, or food in glass containers.
One obviously bit of plastic waste that should go is throw-away razors. They should be replaced by cartridges that slide into a non-disposable handle, they way they were made some 20-odd years ago. They’re a little less convenient, but if we all must make sacrifices, that’s where to start, not with straws.
Roger Knights
The most sensible thing is to use safety razors and old fashioned razor blades. Buy an acceptable quality razor for about £20, 100 blades for £10, which gives one about 300 shaves as good as a disposable and much less razor rash, if any.
I gave up on multi blade razors when I paid £20 for a pack of 4 refills, not looked back since.
Thanks Roger. If I’m reading this right, a country in Europe banned the miracle sponge become micro-particles can wash off and perhaps harms fish. They didn’t ban it because it perhaps harms humans? Interesting.
And we are discussing (as we have in the past) where bans are in place for plastic straws because they might harm fish, yet we are only up to “a movement is afoot” about banning them because of humans. Ok then. Glad we have our priorities right.
On C-Span live, right now, Bernie Sanders and a panel including weepy Bill McKibben on “Climate Change And Environmental Policy”. Waiting to watch Bill “weep for the future”.
Bernie’s first question (for Brenda Ekwurzel of Union Of Concerned Scientists): “President Trump says climate change is a hoax. Is President Trump Right?” That’s what known, ladies and gents, as a “softball question”.
So far Brenda and Bill are citing “proof” in the form of recent “extreme” weather events.
Sigh.
Oh, also on the panel, heavyweights Shailene Woodley (“award-winning actress”), and the formidable Van Jones (“the 2016 election was a ‘whitelash”).
Live on C-Span II right now! Quiz at Eleven.
I wonder what you can build using plastic straws?
Someone allegedly once made a model of Buckingham Palace using their own toenail clippings and copious amounts of glue (presumably with a great deal of patience as well).
Once, both of my big toenails came off after being stomped on (my fault). I kept them and promised to make a set of earrings for the wife.
Strangely, she rejected the offer…
I guess the earwax facial is right out then.
For the plastiphobic, straws should be made of straw, glyphosate coating free of charge. Would you prefer wheat, barley or oat straw? Oat for the celiac, barley for the beer drinker and wheat for the one on a diet craving bread.
Sorry this isn’t more scientific, but I’m pretending to be nine and out to change the world.
If LEGO wanted to impress not only the Greenies but everybody else, too, they’d forget paper straws and make them out of hemp…if the government loosened the laws on hemp production and use. In fact, LEGOs themselves could be made out of hemp, with far less environmental cost.
Salute all from the 50’s!!
Can you remember the wax-coated paper straws we used at A&W for root beer and at Walgreen soda counters for shakes?
Some where along the line in the 60’s, plastic became cheaper and more substantial, especially for those thick A&W shakes. And that new place called McDonalds used them.
Gums muses….
Can you spell hypocrisy?
So when can we expect to see Lego made from plantation timber I wonder?
Here in Victoria we’ve seen local councils promoting the replacement of plastic straws with stainless steel straws. They’ve been handing out these highly dangerous implements to people including young kids, the mind boggles at what injury a three or four year-old could do to his/her playmates with these. As for the cost, around $1.00 AUD for the S/S and around 2 cents for the plastic.
Bob in Castlemaine
Not to mention hygiene issues.
Of all the thousands and thousands of tons of plastic crap Legos makes, they eliminate the inconsequential plastic straws at their theme park soda fountains….
Lamest virtue signalling attempt evah!
Lego: caught between a rock and a hard place. Talk about reinventing yourself.
Do you realise that if all the lego blocks in the world were connected end to end they would go twice around the known universe. Lego – such a shame.
Maybe if Marriott were paying more attention to running their business than they were to Virtue Signaling about plastic straws they would not have let 1/2 Billion peoples personal data slip out the back door.
I was talking to one of my customers today. She was so excited to receive her latest package!
It had drink bottles in it, allegedly made from recycled plastic, recovered from the oceans!
I feigned excitement………………………
Oh come on, you are making a fool of yourself WUWT, please stop it.
The MASSIVE difference between a drinking straw and a lego block is SINGLE USE.
You know that so dont be ridiculous.
And as for calling the issue of plastic a ‘scare’, you are making a mockery of the work you have done to fight the ridiculous CAGW scare. Plastics are a problem and there is no need for their overuse. Fossil fuels however ARE needed and CO2 is beneficial.
MattS
Plastic straws can be reused, but it’s considered unhygienic as they are difficult to wash.
Nor is plastic a problem, like CO2 it’s a benefit. And the term ‘scare’ only echoes the hysteria from governments, greens and the MSM about plastic waste they choose to ship to the far east where it’s dumped in the ocean.
As usual the knee jerk reaction to the green environmentalists whipping up scare stories is that governments make ill considered, short term decisions, blind to the unintended consequences.
Climate change is merely a metaphor for monumental global stupidity of any description. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a laugh at their expense.
as noted below, you are incorrect that this ban is anti-plastic, it is a ban to stop marine plastic waste.
Good post. WUWT needs to stick with what they know and not grab onto everything their funders want them to.
Sock-puppeting relevance troll is irrelevant. Bonus unpoints for implied funded-by-big-oil smear.
This is actually real issue, unrelated climate change or political correctness – plastic straws are awful as marine waste as whales ingest them and other marine life do to. Straws and those cheap plastic bags seems to be the worst form of plastic waste for this. Do marine life “see” them as a food and then eat them intentionally? Possibly.
This is likely not an issue for anyone that doesn’t live near a coast though, so banning all plastic straws seems a bit of hyperbole.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/06/04/pilot-whale-dies-thailand-after-swallowing-plastic-bag-waste/668341002/
It seems Legoland are located in California and Florida. Lots of places in Florida are only offering plastic straws if requested. I live in Florida…and volunteer at Mote aquarium where all single use plastic is not used.
I have no issues at all with their policy to ban straws, as to the reason why? As a person whom volunteers to pick up litter, I have picked up countless straws in the process.
A global class action lawsuit for all the foot injuries incurred by parents is in order.
Plastic bad. Lego good. Got it!
Sheesh.
Thought I read that the majority of the plastic waste found in the ocean was 1) primarily lost fishing equipment, 2) illegally dumped waste that the disposer was paid to recycle and 3) just plan old discarding of waste rather than proper disposal.
It really doesn’t matter, as one who volunteers at an aquarium that is the rescue hospital for central Florida, enough straws and cheap plastic bags make it into the ocean that many necropsies of these dead animals show they have ingested plastic. One study showed that nearly ten percent of cetaceans (dolphins and whales) have plastic (like real plastic – straws, cups, plastic shopping bags) in their digestive tract. I am sure there is a lot of fishing equipment out there, and some cetaceans do have net material they have eaten. Remember , huge baleen whales are simply filtering whatever enters their mouth for food so plastic seems like food. Also, for dolphins and killer whales and other hunters, plastic bags look a lot like squid and straws like other animals. They may actually seek out this stuff so the amount does not matter, clearly enough gets there.
BTW, I am not huge believer in the great Pacific plastic gyre (most pics are from the Japanese Tsunami) and I have yet to see any ill effects of micro plastics which are rather inert. It is the large plastic that we know are doing damage.
http://onemoregeneration.org/2011/02/17/plastic-bag-killed-beaked-whale/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/science/sperm-whale-death-spain.html
see post below, whenever they post it.
“. . . . plastic straws will still be available by request for guests with specific paper allergies or dietary restrictions.”
I’d like a plastic straw please – its the only kind I can eat . . .
So now we are making of fun of whales for not understanding McDonald’s, ok then……..