In Alameda, there is an attempt to have restaurants stop automatically providing plastic straws with drinks.  The straws are not recyclable.  To begin with, the goal is to have the facilities wait for someone to ask for a straw before giving one.  This means that people have taken the responsibility of contacting places and asking them to do this.

It also means that guests can take the initiative of asking servers to not bring a straw.  Once again, an attempt to heighten peoples’ awareness of how we can contribute to help save our environment.

Paper straws are apparently far more expensive than plastic ones, thus making it difficult to expect that food places will make a switch.

I hope that this blog will heighten our awareness of how we can stop contributing to deterioration.  We all need to be educated about so many behaviors that have become habitual or ritualized in our lives.

Can we change?  I sure hope so.