Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY

A7
U.S. NEWS Friday 21 September 2018
California

makes

people ask

for straws,

sodas with

kid meals

By SOPHIA BOLLAG
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)
— If you want a straw
with your drink or a soda
with your child's meal at a
California restaurant, you'll
need to ask for them start-
ing next year.
A law signed Thursday by
Gov. Jerry Brown makes
California the first state to
bar full-service restaurants
from automatically giv-
ing out single-use plastic
straws. Another law he ap-
proved requires milk or wa-
ter to be the default drink
sold with kids' meals at fast-
food and full-service res-
taurants.
Neither law is an outright
ban on straws or sugary
drinks in kids' meals. But
some Republicans have
called the measures gov-
ernment overreach by the
heavily Democratic state.
California restaurants that
don't comply with the new
straw law will get two warn-
ings before being fined up
to $300 per year. It will ap-
ply only to full-service res-
taurants, not fast-food es-
tablishments.
Democratic lawmakers
who support the policy call
it a small step toward re-
ducing ocean pollution.
Brown, who has made en-
vironmental issues a sig-
nature priority, pointed to
the large amount of plastic
dumped in oceans every
year that can kill whales
and fish and contaminate
people's food and water
supplies.
"Plastic has helped ad-
vance innovation in our
society, but our infatua-
tion with single-use con-
venience has led to di-
sastrous consequences,"
Brown said in a statement.
"Plastics, in all forms —
straws, bottles, packaging,
bags, etc. — are choking
the planet."q