michael_nielsen

Popular environmentalism (e.g. banning plastic straws) is like the way inexperienced programmers optimize code at random, without profiling first.

The ban on plastic straws in the EU was motivated by the fact that it's one of the most common forms of litter. 300.000 pieces of litter were studied to come to this conclusion. Furthermore, it's not a real ban. It just requires the producers to pay for the cleanup costs.

By mass?

Completely irrelevant. I take it you are more educated on the subject than the researchers who determined this would be an effective measure? Your entire argument relied on a falsehood, that the ban on straws was to reduce plastic waste.

Just to be clear, if banning straws was actually optimal solution, everyone would go after it. That's the way humans work. Other than that, looks good to say it in certain circles, no thing more.

Go ahead then. How was the research conducted on behalf of the commission wrong?

Can you link to the original study? I've spent 10 mins looking, and can't find it. Thanks.