[apsec112]

The first example I saw (think the order might be randomized?) was an EU ban on plastic straws, which is silly. Straws are a negligible fraction of plastic waste, and have no good substitute ("compostable" plastic straws are also banned; paper straws fall apart easily; metal/glass straws are inconvenient and require washing). This would flunk any serious cost/benefit analysis. You can hide the costs by making them regulatory instead of financial (the inconvenience of not having plastic straws doesn't appear in GDP stats), but the costs are still there, they're just hidden.

[CountGeek]

Pets remove plastic and instead poison ourselves.

  A 2023 Belgian study[0] tested 39 brands of straws (paper, bamboo, glass, stainless steel, and plastic):

  Paper and bamboo straws most frequently contained PFAS, sometimes at high levels.

  Plastic straws also contained PFAS, but less consistently.

  Stainless steel straws were PFAS-free in that study.

[0]https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2023-00268...

[whazor]

I once drunk from a pasta straw, that should also be PFAS free. Though hot liquids might cook the pasta.

[bigstrat2003]

That was the first one for me as well and I was surprised they included it. I have never seen a disposable straw that does the job well, except for plastic. I actively avoid restaurants that use the cardboard straws because of it. That's how bad they suck. I can't believe the EU was foolish enough to ban plastic straws when there just isn't an actual viable alternative.

[kyriakos]

Quality of non plastic straws has improved dramatically, I don't even notice they are not plastic anymore. Unless you are sucking on a drink for hours they don't disintegrate.

[arp242]

The actual text is "Bans the worst beach‑litter plastics (straws, cutlery, sticks) and cuts pollution" and the tooltip says "Targets the most littered plastic items with bans, design and collection rules, and extended producer responsibility to clean up coasts and waterways."

I looked a bit further, it bans a long list of plastic single-use stuff: plates, cutlery, certain food containers, certain cups, and a bunch of other things. It also regulates some labelling for other single-use products.

It claims that "80 to 85% of marine litter, measured as beach litter counts, is plastic, with single-use plastic items representing 50% and fishing-related items representing 27%".

Saying it's just a "plastic straw ban is" ... eh, well, a straw man. And single-use plastics are a substantial source of litter/pollution (I didn't investigate the accuracy of this claim in-depth).

In conclusion, this seems about as accurate and good faith as the ol' "EU bendy banana myth".

[wqaatwt]

How exactly (and if) do plastic straws from the EU end up in the Pacific Ocean, though? Maybe they could have started with that

[ozgrakkurt]

Giving paper straws at coffee shops should be criminalised

[master-lincoln]

Drinking coffee from a straw too

[jjani]

> metal/glass straws are inconvenient and require washing

Boohoo. Don't use a straw then. Out of the billions of beverages consumed during the last 24 hours, it's a given that >95% were consumed without one.

It's also of course an entirely arbitrary line to draw. Are all your plates and bowls at home plastic as well?

[Defletter]

> Are all your plates and bowls at home plastic as well?

Funnily enough, there are contingents of people who exclusively use paper plates and plastic cutlery. I think there's an interesting parallel there. Those kinds of people simply do not want the effort and cost of maintenance. I'm not particularly sympathetic to this mindset in either case, but still.

[raincole]

> It's also of course an entirely arbitrary line to draw

Banning straws is the "entirely arbitrary line to draw." Why not banning paper plates as well? Plastic bowls too?