[HN Gopher] Single-use cutlery and plates to be banned in England
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       Single-use cutlery and plates to be banned in England
        
       Author : edward
       Score  : 7 points
       Date   : 2023-01-08 21:54 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
        
       | mytailorisrich wrote:
       | The article is not very well written as it seems that the ban
       | will actually apply to plastic items, not single-use cutlery and
       | plates in general. I.e. everything will most likely become paper-
       | based.
       | 
       | I had a McDonald's salad today and the cutlery was made from
       | paper and was actually not bad, certainly much better than the
       | paper straws they give and that are awful.
        
         | matthewdgreen wrote:
         | What worries me is that these "paper" items are increasingly
         | being coated with PFAS and related compounds. I'd like to know
         | that my paper doesn't contain those long-lived chemicals.
        
       | everfrustrated wrote:
       | >Single-use cutlery and plates to be banned in England
       | 
       | Headline is unnecessarily sensationalist. In fact the ban is
       | about _plastic_.
        
       | JoeAltmaier wrote:
       | Odd. Paper plates can be as efficient as washing reusable ones?
       | 
       | And what on earth will that takeaway vindaloo be packaged in now?
        
         | europeanguy wrote:
         | If we're talking about the "reusable" cutlery that we see on
         | the picture in the article linked, no one in England washes
         | those, I can assure you. In fact it's not uncommon to see them
         | literally thrown on the floor in London.
        
           | JoeAltmaier wrote:
           | I agree. I meant "ceramic, porcelain or the like". You know,
           | real stuff.
        
       | tastysandwich wrote:
       | My understanding is that 81% of ocean waste comes from rivers in
       | poorer Asian countries. And the rest is from marine sources
       | (fishing nets, lines, ropes, and abandoned vessels) [1]. Not much
       | seems to come from wealthier nations, let alone plastic
       | straws/plates/etc.
       | 
       | I'm no expert, and I do think ocean waste is a problem that needs
       | to be taken seriously. But it seems to me that all I hear is
       | politicians talk about banning straws (to very little effect on
       | ocean plastic) in, say, Australia, rather than helping a country
       | like the Philippines (responsible for one-third of global ocean
       | plastic) improve waste management.
       | 
       | As I said I'm no expert, but is helping poorer countries improve
       | waste management such a monumentally difficult task?
       | 
       | [1] https://ourworldindata.org/ocean-plastics
        
         | europeanguy wrote:
         | My understanding is that waste doesn't seem to come from
         | wealthier nations because they pay poor nations to "properly
         | dispose" of it, who in turns just dump them in their rivers.
        
         | okwubodu wrote:
         | Most wealthy nations export a large chunk of their plastic and
         | other waste to poorer countries. The conclusion that article
         | came to is very strange.
        
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