Plastic stirrers are a health and planetary hazard
I must refute the suggestion that plastic stirrers will eliminate the
on-going Great Spoon Robbery in Australia. Plastic stirrers are dangerous
to your health and/or contribute to global warming. This applies at least
to those dispensed with the hot drinks in my place of work, and I suspect
to many more.
The problem is that the stirrers are approximately 1 mm taller (when lying
in the prone position with the foot of the stirrer on one side of the
bottom of the plastic beaker and the head on the other side of the top)
than the liquid laughingly called tea, coffee, or cappuccino that issues
from the machine. As the stirrers have a propensity to bend with the heat
of the liquid, one has to make a grab for them before they disappear
beneath the billowing waves completely.
So now come the problems:
1) As you grab the stirrer you suffer third degree burns to your fingers,
because, contary to the experience found in many bars around the world,
vending machine drinks are hot! In addition to the burns, your finger tips
are now covered in the liquid, which you will deal with in one of two
ways, depending on how you were brought up. So either:
2) You lick your fingers, which of course you didn't think of washing
before going to the drinks machine, thus catching any diseases that happen
to be lurking under your finger nails, requiring hospitalization and much
time off work. Or:
3) You rush to the washroom and expend large amounts of the Earth's
natural resources in eliminating the liquid from your digits with hot
water and soap (also contributing to the local pollution problem).
Rapid Response:
Plastic stirrers are a health and planetary hazard
I must refute the suggestion that plastic stirrers will eliminate the
on-going Great Spoon Robbery in Australia. Plastic stirrers are dangerous
to your health and/or contribute to global warming. This applies at least
to those dispensed with the hot drinks in my place of work, and I suspect
to many more.
The problem is that the stirrers are approximately 1 mm taller (when lying
in the prone position with the foot of the stirrer on one side of the
bottom of the plastic beaker and the head on the other side of the top)
than the liquid laughingly called tea, coffee, or cappuccino that issues
from the machine. As the stirrers have a propensity to bend with the heat
of the liquid, one has to make a grab for them before they disappear
beneath the billowing waves completely.
So now come the problems:
1) As you grab the stirrer you suffer third degree burns to your fingers,
because, contary to the experience found in many bars around the world,
vending machine drinks are hot! In addition to the burns, your finger tips
are now covered in the liquid, which you will deal with in one of two
ways, depending on how you were brought up. So either:
2) You lick your fingers, which of course you didn't think of washing
before going to the drinks machine, thus catching any diseases that happen
to be lurking under your finger nails, requiring hospitalization and much
time off work. Or:
3) You rush to the washroom and expend large amounts of the Earth's
natural resources in eliminating the liquid from your digits with hot
water and soap (also contributing to the local pollution problem).
No, give me disappearing metal spoons, any day.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests