Whale skin interior and big round baby seal eyes for headlights?

Agreed. Boxed waster is nasty, but not as bad as some of the new 'trends' I've seen with aluminum canned water. Tastes like the metallic can.

Paper cups are typically coated with PLA, not PFAS.

https://www.labmanager.com/paper-cup...tic-cups-30839

There are still liabilities to the product, although this particular article is hostile towards paper somewhat by ignoring some of the benefits of PLA.

Any single use product is environmentally hostile. Figuring out which ones are the worse can be tricky. While paper cups are not free of liabilities paper is unquestionably renewable versus petrochemical based plastics.

Paper cups with no liner in them tend to break down in places more quickly than I'd like, especially with alcohol in them, back in my drinkin days. Plastic isn't exactly classy, but it lasts. Granted on a flight there probably wouldn't be enough time for any sort of weak spots to develop.

And I also agree that it imparts a weird taste. And don't get me started on paper straws. From a sensory/texture standpoint (mind you I don't have sensory issues) they give me the chills using.

Not true. I was the Board Chair of the world's largest purchaser of PLA. It can be used for lining paper cups and while it's use is increasing (because of concerns regarding the toxicity of PFAS) it's still not that common. PLA is more typically used for producing plastic cups themselves.

This is a myth (at least in the U.S.) Collecting, transporting, sorting, washing, and processing recycled materials has a higher carbon footprint than simply using a plastic product once and throwing it in a landfill. If you process plastic waste through a WTE incineration facility it's not even close. (That said, the failure to properly dispose of plastic refuse is an environmental problem in many poorer countries.)

Want a drink on a plane? Bring your own cup!

Ever been to Seminyak in Bali? The amount of
plastics washing up on the beach (when we were there) is mind blowing.

Your stated credentials are not validated and your tone shows a definite bias. I will go with a documented research paper from a world renowned university. This is not an ad hominem attack because it is relevant to the topic at hand. Also, a wide variety of states have enacted various levels of PFAS bans.

https://www.packagingdigest.com/food...ions-in-the-us

This makes selling food service products with PFAS very problematic since a dozen states with a population of somewhere around 100,000,000 have various levels of bans. And more I am sure are on the way.

And this does include cups:

https://www.shipmangoodwin.com/insig...r-31-2022.html

Now if you have some safety data sheets (SDS) that show some major manufacturers of paper cups still using PFAS, please present. I will be happy to look at the evidence. Saying you are an expert means absolutely nothing. Completely nothing. Show me the money.

As for single use products being more of an environmental problem than multi use products, that is not a myth.

We have my wife’s grandmother’s China and it is well over half a century old. We have silverware from I believe the last part of the 19th century, although we are not sure since it has been in the family so long. And I have headphones and speakers from Reagan’s first term.

But let’s stick with Grandma’s china. Grandma would have been 106 and assuming she got those dishes as a wedding present, those dishes are at least 80 years. Using something on a regular basis for 80 years versus getting paper plates for all those untold times is definitely more environmentally friendly than going through disposable plates for the same number of uses. Heck, we have Corningware and everyday flatware that we have been using for nearly 20 years every day and I see every reason we will be using them for another 20 years, if not longer.

40 x 365 x 1.5 uses per item per day is 21,900 uses. Manufacturing 21,900 disposable plates and flatware, packaging them, shipping them, collecting the residue and then disposing it will definitely have a greater environmental impact than the items that are multi use. That is what I am talking about.

While it depends on the number of times an item is reused, single use items have a distinct disadvantage in terms of environmental friendliness compared to multi use items.

Another enhancement!

Yet the plastic minis, plastic wrap on the FC trays, snacks, or snack boxes and food within are still ok.

stoopid.

I ended up with aluminum bottled water (Dasani) in Washington State a few weeks ago. Wouldn't open for anything. The top kept deforming until it eventually popped open on one side and sliced open my finger quite nicely.

Very true, but it's not coming from the U.S. or Europe. It's almost all comes from poor countries (plus the fishing industry.) So instead of virtue signaling by banning plastics in the U.S, which has almost zero impact on the amount of plastics in the ocean and which instead results in increased CO2 output and increased wood harvesting, people should be focused on efforts to help poorer countries figure out how to economically deal with their waste problems.

I prefer plastic cups to paper ones as far as my on-board experience. However, getting rid of single-use plastic is much more important than the slight displeasure from drinking from a paper cup. Single-use plastic is an addiction fueled by industry lobbyists. It’s very challenging to be a consumer and avoid single-use plastic—almost impossible. So, in the end, I am glad Delta made this decision and wish more businesses would favor plastic-free alternatives.

It is true that plastic in the oceans are primarily coming from countries other than the US and these issues need to be addressed.
https://ourworldindata.org/ocean-plastics

But that doesn’t change the fact that the US makes a tremendous amount of plastics that are made from a non-renewable resource that end up in landfills and in the environment.

Research has indicated that terrestrial microplastic contamination is higher than marine microplastic contamination.
https://www.unep.org/news-and-storie...uting-our-soil

I am not kidding myself that replacing plastic cups with paper is going to solve the massive and dangerous environmental problems the world faces but we have to start somewhere.

And you label it as virtue signaling. I would say that many of these actions can instead be taken as a call to arms. Every major change starts out small. Get people used to the idea in a small way and make them see there is a massive problem the world needs to address.

The era of massive implementation of single use products made from non-renewable resources has got to end. I am not saying all single use products and all plastics need to be banned but change has got to happen. And the cold hard fact is that petrochemicals are a limited resource. You may argue when and how they will become uneconomically viable but it WILL happen. There is absolutely zero doubt of that.

Planning for that and acting on that sooner than later is unquestionably the smarter, more beneficial move. It is like planning for retirement. Starting when you are 24 is way better than starting when you are 64.

Nah...that'd be insensitive to the Inuit (though if I have to reupholster, I wonder...) and George Barris is no longer around to make that all work, but I've seriously considered the question of cowhorns once or twice...