Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Paper straws,really?

We used a paper straw or did without, cause that's all there was.

Single use plastic is a real problem. For a outdoors forum it seems many here could care less about the environment

Driving home after attended a graduation in College Station we (wife, son, me) stopped at a distillery in Dripping Springs. I had an Old Fashioned. They offered a really nice paper straw. A cocktail with a straw plastic, paper or otherwise? We stopped at another one in Blanco. No straws...

I won't disagree with you about China and third world countries polluting the oceans, but to say not Americans is a bit misleading.

I worked a job where I pumped about 11 cubic feet a second of water, from the upper 5' of flow, out of the Columbia River, through a screen with 1/8" holes in it. During the course of 24 hours I have filled a bread bag with plastic trash. At that time of year the dams on the Columbia were releasing between 100,000 and 500,000 cubic feet per second.

The math would tend to show that what I was gathering from such a small percentage of the flow when upscaled to the flow of the river would probably equate to tons per day of plastic flowing out the mouth of that river.

The types of plastic amazed me, everything from worm container lids to Visqueen used for landscaping and soil erosion control, to part of toys, and the ubiquitous blue tarps.

Now, think of what's flowing out of every other river in the US of A and tell me Americans aren't polluting the oceans.

Again, China, India, most of South Asia and Africa are the big contributors, but we aren't guiltless.

Geno

Local Bobby Flay's Burger Palace. https://www.livecasinohotel.com/locations/bobbys-burger-palace

The good thing about giving people a local casino to waste their money is it attracts good restaurants and Bobby's makes a fine burger.

You can also press a paper straw flat lengthwise, then squeeze along the fold to open it and flatten it again at 90 degrees to the original fold. Squeeze that open and you have a square straw. Every six year old knew how to do that. Can't do it with plastic so no wonder kids these days have no inkling of geometry or engineering.

But paper or plastic, the procedure is the same, assuming the straws are individually wrapped in paper.
1. Open one end of wrapper and withdraw straw about 2 inches.
2. Twist other end of wrapper tightly into a point.
3. Blow on the straw to launch the wrapper like a projectile and hit your sister in the face.
4. Pretend to be abashed by Mom's rebuke.

5. At the end of the milkshake, try to suck up the last little bit and make loud sslurrpple noises until the 4th or 5th repetition of #4. Fwiw, these plastic straws with the little spoon portion are worthless for that unless you turn it around, and then the sharp plastic spoon part cuts your tongue.

Either way, first world problems for sure.

A real problem for whom? And why? Because it's aesthetically unpleasing? The big complaint seems to be that the stuff is inert, doesn't go away by itself. So are rocks.

I still prefer to buy our milk in 1/2 gallon paper cartons. Wish they had the ones without the little plastic screw on top, would save me some work. I have to rip those out so I can use the carton to get the fire started. The waxed carton will help start it right up.

Not pollution free, as I'm still putting out smoke and carbon, but our recycling program is primitive here to say the least.

Geno

Cool Pugs,

Next time we head to the Bay Area I'll try to remember to look for a Bobby Flay's.

Might be headed that way in 8 weeks as there's likely going to be a new member of our family coming. A whippet puppy is in the offing!

Geno

I remember them from the late 60s and early 70s.

The best paper straws were filled with Pixy Dust

https://www.amazon.com/candy-pixie-sticks/s?k=candy+pixie+sticks

Geno

I used to think it was inert too. Turns out it isn't look up micro plastics. Although it lasts for hundreds of years its slowly giving off microscopic bits of itself. Its a real problem for oyster farmers near here.

Dumping you trash just anywhere is not good.

[bleep] genius...what can I say

Isn't this just a woman problem? Never saw a man use a straw with anything.

The oyster farms and such might just be a 'Canary in a coal mine" for that stuff.

Geno

Yes they are Geno. Them and other bivalves like clams make their living siphoning huge amounts of water to get the bits of plankton etc. for food. Unfortunately that includes bad stuff and they're going to get the effects of it long before a fish for instance because they're basically a filter for everything in the water column. I guess the microplastics plug up their system and do harm.

I've been reading about it for years Salty. I'm a fish head, so anything marine related that comes up on my radar gets looked into.

Especially bad for filter feeders as they are not gaining any energy from the ingestion of microplastics. They already have to filter out sediment and indigestible items in the normal cost of doing business, now add this on top and they are expending energy to feed without getting the same benefit.

Not only bivalves, but look at the other forms of life that get their food resources in the same or similar manner. Many forms of plankton, corals, etc. Compound that up the food chain, less energy in each smaller item eaten means less energy taken in per unit of energy expended by larger critters.

Some research is pointing to our use of synthetics in our clothing as another source of microplastics, not just the breaking down of what we generally think of as "plastic pollution". Check out the dryer vent screen, a lot of the same stuff goes out the pipe with the laundry rinse water, and sewage treatment systems don't deal with particulate matter that small.

Oh well, nothing we can do about it as China and others are still going to pollute..............so we might as well also?

Geno

Geno, the 1950s are sounding pretty good right about now. Blue jeans, cotton shirt a wool sweater, leather boots and paper straw in the soda. No damn plastic tips in the boolits in the ot six thank-you very much

Seems I recall some company back about them times had some bronze tips?

Think they'd work again?

Regarding plastic ammo remnants, in the trash I mentioned coming out of the Columbia among the common items were shot shell wads and sometimes the shell itself. A lot of times the petals to the wads had broken off so I just got the base. All of it going right out the Columbia to the sea.

Geno