South Africa takes on straws, plastics waste

The sign caught my eye right away.

I was inside Cape Town International Airport in South Africa and the bar had a large sign declaring they won't be offering straws to customers any longer, but they were available upon request.

This is the policy that is law in California (to the recent surprise and chagrin of Rep. Devin Nunes, apparently).

I saw it as I was departing Cape Town after a five day vacation. It was clear from my time there that the city was taking plastics waste very seriously.

There were bottle return machines that highlighted the need for everyone to do their part in stopping plastic from entering the ocean. I saw a display on the riverfront of plastic that was collected from harbor instructing visitors to use recycling and waste containers (which were everywhere). I rarely saw straws outside of juice stands. At our hotel bar, there was a placard that said they used PLA straws (although I never saw anyone using one).

When I'm in a new country, I always like looking in the snack aisle and packaging really caught my eye. In the single-serving of Pringles cans, there was no plastic top. In America, these tops are there along with the foil cover.

The markets also charged for polypropylene bags, which were thicker than bags I typically encounter in Michigan.

It was good to see South Africa, with all of its infrastructure challenges (there's a water shortage and periodic power outages), still tackling plastic waste.

As for an update on my straw count: I used nine straws in March, none of which were in South Africa.

Monthly totals:

January: 9

February: 10

March: 9