Also, paper is made from wood chips, which are renewable and from old rags, which are recycled. Paper straws, cups and plates were forced off the market because low information dumb asses believed we were destroying the forest by making paper.
No, I realize people from Thailand are not dumping their trash in our mountain streams (at least not to any great number), the trash is being dumped by litterbugs fishing and hiking in the mountains. I also know that the trash in these trout streams is not making its way down to the Atlantic and killing whales and manatees.
Something should be done to stop litterbugs, there are $3000.00 fines if you are caught littering in the mountains but people do it anyway, a small percentage of people I might add. You could, I suppose, do like was done in high school and punish the entire class for the transgressions of a few
Everything that we do has pluses and minuses. What pisses a lot of people off is people like yourself only see the minuses no matter what steps are taken. And the way to solve the problem is more laws and rules and things that just won't make any difference.
What exactly is the point of Seattle outlawing plastic when they account for less than 1/10 of one percent of all the pollution in the ocean. Fine those people who are emptying their ash trays at stop signs, or throwing fast food trash out their car but don't punish the bulk of the people who are not doing these things.