Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
I, for one, can't think of Seattle without thinking of Starbucks, which first opened its doors in the city in March of 1971. And what is Starbucks without coffee? (I should confess that I really like their oatmeal, but Starbucks pastries are another story altogether.) And what is coffee without, well, a cup out of which to enjoy that piping hot grande latte for which you forked over a month's worth of a Ricochet Membership?
Answer: a major inconvenience. An inconvenience so big, that you, and I, and everyone we know would make far fewer stops at Starbucks.
But that's no skin off Karin de Weille's back. This weekend, the enviro-statist launched a campaign to push Seattle to eliminate its use of paper cups.
"I think Seattle can push the frontier," [Ms. de Weille] said at Green Festival, the two-day celebration of eco-friendliness where the effort got its official start.
Harmless enough if it's just one raving hippie calling for the encroachment of other peoples' freedom. Less harmless if the City Council President is on board with this egregious assault on liberty.
Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin endorsed the initiative, which urges participants to whip out their own reusable cups for mochas on the go, and opt for ceramic over paper when ordering "for here."
"Let's show that we can do this, and our success will be duplicated in other cities," Conlin said in a statement.
So make sure to pack a mug in your briefcase on the way to work, Seattle. You'll need the practice. As we in plastic bagless San Francisco can attest, you're just one small step away from an all out ban.
(Many thanks to EJHill for supplying yet another brilliant graphic!)
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May '11
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
Sorry. Double post.
Edited on May 24, 2011 at 12:44amMay '11
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
Awesome picture, by the way. RB, I do the same thing.
Apr '11
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
Don't even get me started.
Welcome to my world.
Seattle also has a ban on styrofoam take out containers. I work in a different city and often bring leftovers home in styro, with a certain amount of glee, but also wondering if the trash police will bust me.
Oct '10
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
Beurocrats ARE biodegradable, good start for community garden fertilizer there .
Now there is a lesson learned....
May '10
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
I welcome stories like this in the hope that they will help awake America to a clear and present danger. It has scourged the rest of the world, hobbled economies, retarded human progress, and in full and brazen expansion, killed millions through famine and other shortages. It is a danger Americans can be too quick to discount, believing that it could never swamp their shores. It involves a descriptor generally deemed outside the pale of political discourse even though it accurately describes most of America's external enemies in the 20th and 21st centuries and though it precisely describes the political core of the current occupant of the White House.
It is this - there is no limit to the ambition of socialists.
May '10
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
That says it all.
Nov '10
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
This is not a facetious question: Don't these people have anything better to do with their time? If they need something to fulfill their apparently empty lives, they could at least sign up for a Ricochet membership.
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
Please, by all means, push the frontier. By which I mean, topple into the ocean.
Jun '10
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
RB: Here in a certain self-styled "progressive' county right outside DC, we're getting the grocery bag tax starting next year. Never mind that the bags are mostly made from recycled material, and often see a second use lining a wastebasket, dealing w/ cat litter or whatever ... I use those suckers. So I am going gladly pay a nickel each for them, Maybe 15-25 cents a week? And if that p.o.'s enviros around here, so much the better.
Banning paper cups is completely absurd. · May 23 at 3:25pm
Lemme guess. Montgomery Co., Maryland.
Apr '11
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
Elizabeth Dunn asks, "Don't these people have anything better to do with their time?"
If you look through the annals of the Seattle City Council, it would soon become clear that no, they don't have anything better to do with their time! Our current mayor is another story entirely.
(Please forgive the clunky formatting: being new here, I don't yet know how to capture comments in a box.)
Mar '11
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
The Future: Walk into Starbucks, genuflect to the Resident Government Regulator, whisper a few nice things about Government, receive a mouthful of latte from the Government Gold Chalice, say ten Hail Obamas and cleanse yourself of any lascivious thoughts about your own paper cup.
Jan '11
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
Didn't the Seattle government put a ban on using sand and salt on their icy hillside roads because the effluvium might end up washing the sand and salt into the ocean?
May '11
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
I'm in Seattle - We voted down the plastic bag ban just last year, thanks to a referendum.
But my landlord says Seattle will fine our entire apartment complex if they find recyclables in our trash... To be on the safe side, I think I'll start tossing all my garbage in the recycling dumpster; I'm sure the city can find a biofriendly way to re-purpose all that used kitty litter.
Jul '10
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
First, they came for the paper cup users, and I didn't object, because I don't drink coffee.
It's such a monumentally stupid proposal... I swear this is the best weapon the left has for the tactical, opportunistic (read: squish) conservatives like me.
I know that I can point, laugh, and convince normal (more or less apolitical) folk that this is crazy on steroids... today.
But what about their younger siblings? Or their neighbors' kids?
Re: Seattle Considers Banning Paper Cups
Courtney: I'm in Seattle - We voted down the plastic bag ban just last year, thanks to a referendum.
But my landlord says Seattle will fine our entire apartment complex if they find recyclables in our trash... To be on the safe side, I think I'll start tossing all my garbage in the recycling dumpster; I'm sure the city can find a biofriendly way to re-purpose all that used kitty litter. · May 23 at 8:57pm
Ah, you so don't have it as bad as we do here in San Francisco. Plastic bag ban, and the landlord tells us that we'll be fined if we don't compost food and plant waste! So we've had to learn how to live alongside fruit flies :(