Okay, No Straws But Don't Take My Bottled Water!

A Cruise Critic news article caught my attention recently. Cruise lines are joining the ranks of restaurants on land and banning the use of plastic straws. No alternative was given other than to say that if a straw is requested it will be available and if you order a slushie type drink that requires a straw, it will come with it. That didn't bother me so much but what followed did.

There is also an initiative to ban all one time use plastics. Now you are pinching my nerve. That would mean there would be no bottled water. The suggested solution is to supply refillable containers. That's fine but not always a pleasant alternative as you would need to refill them with ship's water and let's face it, it doesn't always taste as good.

And then they moved on to no plasticized take out coffee cups. I didn't know they were plastic other than the lids. Is there no alternative? Where are our inventive designers of such products? I've used refillable coffee mugs before. After a while they taste bad and are hard to clean. I doubt they are recyclable.

The last question I have is, what will happen to all those people who use recycled plastic to make new products? Does this mean their market is going to phase out as well? Will we return to glass bottles that, heaven forbid, should they fall in the ocean will at least break apart and become sea glass and be made into jewelry?

What will be next? Once the plastic is gone, the plastic recycling is over, will paper and cardboard go? What would they replace it with? Of course, ceramics! All the potters will be happy. And then the archaeologists of the future will be able to dig up our old dishes and cups and piece them together to see what life was like back when they banned all the plastic.

Okay, my rant is done. I'm as concerned as anyone about the ecology of the ocean (and land for that matter) but before you start taking all those plastics away at least offer some better alternatives. (Guess I wasn't quite done with the rant.)