‘Straws on Request’ Plastic Straw Ban to Take Effect in Los Angeles

Plastic straws will only be available upon request in restaurants all over Los Angeles, California, when the new law goes into effect on Tuesday.

Reports said this will be the second phase of the “Straws on Request” initiative that began in April. The first phase only applied to restaurants with more than 26 employees but now includes every restaurant in the city.

City Council member Mitch O’Farrell said the ban will stop “single-use plastic waste from littering our beaches and waterways.”

However, Breitbart News reported in September of last year that although San Francisco approved a ban on plastic straws in July of 2018, the area was littered with tiny plastic caps from the hypodermic needles the city provides to its drug users.

“The used needles and other waste products scattered across the city streets without being disposed of properly have taken a toll on the city’s cleanliness,” the report stated.

During CNN’s Climate Town Hall event on September 4, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said there is “no question” that single-use plastic needs to be banned.

“Innovation is a process. … But let’s encourage innovation. And I think we can do a little better than some of those flimsy plastic straws. But we do need to ban the plastic,” she commented.

However, President Trump said on July 19 the country has much bigger things to worry about other than plastic straws.

“Everybody focuses on the straws, there’s a lot of other things to focus on. You know it’s interesting about plastic straws, so you have a little straw, but what about the plates, the wrappers, and everything else that are much bigger and made of the same material?” he questioned.

On January 31, Breitbart News reported that the city of Washington, DC, was paying a “plastic straw cop” $60,000 a year to monitor restaurants that did not follow the rules after a plastic straw ban went into effect in early January.

“What, is this California now?” a DC resident said of the ban. “All these laws are just spreading from California. Everything is getting taken away from us, man. This is so stupid.”