Beginning July 1, 2018, restaurants in Seattle will no longer provide plastic straws and utensils to consumers. The reason for the ban is plain and simple: the waste that results from disposable plastic creates a cost that enterprises in the private sector do not subtract from the surplus value/price realization process but instead transfer to what the early 20th century British economist Arthur Cecil Pigou called in Economics of Welfare a “social cost.”

Seattle has decided to reduce these costs. This is the smart thing to do. The more matter and energy that is recycled in the city’s economy, the more it becomes like a ecosystem in its advanced or climax stage. American consumers waste an insane amount of drinking straws everyday (500 million!). The public, which includes natural services and goods (clean water, fresh air), has to pay for any kind of waste that cannot be recycled. Sadly, the ban will not included plastic straws in grocery stores. For the ban to be truly effective, it must be universal. The public should be considering buying metal, reusable straws so that we can make plastic straws a thing of the past.
Think of how much plastic we could reduce every year if the biggest cities all committed to removing plastic straws from their economy!
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(Photo Credit: Thomas Vimare)

Thanks to @mchllsong for the share!

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