Backlash from bubble-tea fans after China bans plastic straws in restaurants By Rebecca Kanthor
When China banned plastic straws in restaurants this year, bubble-tea fans were not happy.
When the Chinese government banned the use of disposable plastic in restaurants this year as part of its newest five-year plan, it unwittingly attracted criticism from a very vocal group bubble-tea drinkers.
That’s because when drinking bubble tea, the straw is essential. How else can you suck up all those chewy tapioca balls?
But customers were having none of it.
Paper straws are no good, said Xiao Cao, while sitting with his girlfriend at a trendy tea shop in Shanghai, drinking his daily cup of bubble tea. If you use them for too long they get all soggy. It affects the taste, he said.
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Goldman Environmental Prize winner Kristal Ambrose and other volunteers clean up plastic waste on a beach in the Bahamas. Credit:
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When environmental activist Kristal Ambrose saw firsthand the profound harm plastic waste can cause to wildlife, she started a nonprofit and successfully lobbied her government to ban all single-use plastics in the Bahamas. Now, she’s been recognized for her work with a 2020 Goldman Environmental Prize.
Plastic waste is an overwhelming problem in the Bahamas. Foreign plastic routinely washes onto its beaches. Add to that the waste from the tourism industry and local domestic use, and the Bahamas is drowning in plastic. Without enough space and resources to recycle the plastic, the Bahamas has been forced to burn or bury much of it in landfills.