
Santa Barbara approves jail time for straw ban violators - Xcelerate
https://sfgate.com/bayarea/article/straw-ban-santa-barbara-plastic-law-jail-fines-13105042.php
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venning
> _...Americans use 500 million plastic straws a day ... hundreds of thousands
> of straws are found littering coastlines around the world each year..._

If "hundreds of thousands" means 500 thousand, then this is saying that
0.00027% of those plastic straws are found on coastlines.

I understand that there are problems with both of those statistics, but it
still seems a bit odd to publish them like this (there are 13 words between
those numbers).

Again, the "500 million" number is likely wrong (as OP references, [1]) and
the "hundreds of thousands" number was probably the author taking a spitball
at something that there aren't real statistics for, but they still chose to
print it.

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-
straws-b...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-ban-
fact-check-nyt.html)

EDIT: In reference to [1], being within an order-of-magnitude is pretty
impressive for a 9-year-old.

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beeclimb
Santa Barbara resident here. Where is this coming from? Jail time? Fake news?
I'm cringing for even typing that out.

[https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/the-last-
st...](https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/the-last-straw-no-
straw-ban-in-santa-barbara-yet/773800218)

~~~
ghein
The proposal was fine and jail for repeat offences, now it's been kicked to
"review".

Like Seattle's job tax once you get serious attention on something, not to
mention the teeming hordes of trial lawyers drooling at the opportunity to sue
Santa Barbara Council for ADA violations, the idea is going to die a quick
death.

They would have gotten away with it without all those people blowing it out of
proportion...

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hajile
Loads of misdemeanors won't get you jail time, but are way worse than handing
out a simple straw. Stupid law is stupid.

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tatersolid
I wonder how many choking victims will die because of this law. An emergency
tracheotomy cannot be performed due to the lack of a small sterile plastic
breathing tube... or does that only happen in the movies?

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dev_dull
How many more laws until we become a just and fair society?

