Here's the best news I've read all week. Toronto is considering a ban on paper coffee cups and other take-out packaging. (Link and Link) I've actually been formulating my own ideas for such a ban and am currently searching for the right officials to address correspondence to.
If you would retort that either an outright ban or taxation is "un-American" or whatever, I would strongly encourage you to spend a day walking for transportation. You may notice how many people simply toss garbage out of their car window. Taxpayers have to pay to clean that up. In many or most cases, taxpayers also have to pay to dispose of the solid waste stream, even when disposed of properly at home. Unless your name is Grover Norquist, you surely believe that taxation is a useful tool for government to wield, in this case to suppress the solid waste stream at its origin.
Or perhaps make use of potato starch in take-out packaging? Just about anything can be made out of it, including utensils and its compostable.
Posted by: Kittymoose | October 18, 2008 at 02:13 AM
Indeed (see http://styrophobia.com/) There definitely needs to be a multi-pronged approach. I can't help but wondering, though, if use of potato starch would never be supported by the industry because it could inflate potato prices. Most food service business depend on profits from french fries and potato chips.
Posted by: Michael Miller | October 19, 2008 at 01:28 PM
That is an excellent idea.
I don't know about an all-out ban, but maybe a hefty surcharge or something. Or at least baristas who don't look at me like I'm all crazy-n-stuff for using my non-disposable, washable, metal cup.
Posted by: Suzanne | March 03, 2009 at 11:22 PM