{"id":92,"date":"2019-04-14T02:21:55","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T06:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/takomatorch.com\/?p=92"},"modified":"2020-09-11T10:23:42","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T14:23:42","slug":"straw-ban-takes-effect-to-mixed-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/14\/straw-ban-takes-effect-to-mixed-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Straw Ban Takes Effect To Mixed Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Two weeks ago, the Takoma Park City Council voted\nunanimously to ban the use of plastic straws within the city limits.  It was a joyous moment for environmentalists\nwho worked for many years to change the city\u2019s policy in order to help reduce\nplastic that ends up in landfills and oceans. Some residents, however, saw it\ninstead as an assault on their rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the new plastic straw ban, restaurants can no longer\noffer plastic straws, and instead must only provide straws that are paper,\nmetal, or glass. The new law doesn\u2019t take effect until June 1st<\/sup> to\nallow restaurants owners time to comply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some concessions were made to allow residents who already\nown plastic straws the ability to use them without facing repercussions.  As a result, the sale of plastic straws\nskyrocketed as city residents rushed to stockpile more before they become\nillegal to purchase. \u201cIt\u2019s an outright attack on our freedoms!\u201d cried Dale\nPearlman. \u201cSure I can simply drink directly out of a glass, but because the\ngovernment is telling me I have to, I\u2019m not going to do it. We don\u2019t need no\nstraw control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some straw owners have created modifications to their\nplastic straws to make them technically legal. \u201cThe law says we can\u2019t have plastic\nstraws, but it doesn\u2019t say anything about semi-plastic straws,\u201d stated Bob\nWhiteman. \u201cFor pennies, I can add a metal paper clip to my straw, which by law\nwould make it legal in the City of Takoma Park.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other straw owners have fought the system by concealing\ntheir plastic straws in their clothes and special holsters. This has made it\ndifficult for local law enforcement to catch everyone. The mayor has proposed creating\na Straw S.W.A.T. Team within the local police department.  The SWAT Team would be tasked with seeking\nindividuals using plastic straws, and swatting them out of their hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proponents of Straw Control defended the new laws, stating that\nstraws were not originally made of plastic, but instead paper, and therefore,\nregulations need to change to meet with the times. \u201cToday\u2019s straws are\ncompletely different and more dangerous than in the past,\u201d stated Barbara Lane.\n\u201cWhen straws were made with paper, you got one drink out of it, then had to\ncompletely reload a new paper straw.  Now\nwith these new plastic straws, they can be used over and over, with rapid fire\nrefills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to banning plastic straws, the city has also\ncreated standards for the rate of flow through a straw by limiting the diameter\nsize. \u201cWe looked at straws from a child safety perspective, and there is an\nepidemic of child fatalities from sugary beverages,\u201d stated the City Manager.\n\u201cIf we can limit the flow of sugar into the child, we can reduce the occurrence\nof child obesity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plastic straw enthusiasts plan to take the entire suite of new\nstraw laws to the courts, where they are confident the laws will be overturned.\n\u201cThis country was founded on individual rights and liberties and that includes\nmy right to drink a Slurpee through an oversized plastic tube,\u201d said Pearlman. \u201cIf\na sea otter has to choke to death to make that happen, then so be it. George\nWashington would have wanted it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, the Takoma Park City Council voted unanimously to ban the use of plastic straws within the city limits.  It was a joyous moment for environmentalists who worked for many years to change the city\u2019s policy in order to help reduce plastic that ends up in landfills and oceans. Some residents, however, saw…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[24,140,130,98,93,111,4,2,64,104],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-dc-satire","tag-fake-news","tag-montgomery-county","tag-political-satire","tag-satire","tag-satirical-news","tag-takoma","tag-takoma-park","tag-takoma-park-city-council","tag-takoma-torch","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/takomatorch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/straws.jpg?fit=926%2C689&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPZSG-1u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/94"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takomatorch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}