GEORGE TOWN: A restaurant here has been caught re-using drinking straws for its customers.I cannot understand how anyone can resort to such contemptible, detestable and unhygienice acts that put our health at risk just to save a few cents!!! The profit margin for a cold drink in a coffee shop is very high. Is it necessary then to stoop to such a loathsome and disgusting act?
Penang Municipal Council officers were horrified when they saw a worker washing the straws during a spot check on eateries in Pulau Tikus on Wednesday.
“He told us they were going to reuse it. We were shocked and gave him a stern warning,” its public health standing committee member Ong Ah Teong said.
They returned to the restaurant later to verify that their instructions had been followed, he said.
He warned that restaurant owners who committed such misdeeds could face closure.
They would be given warning “but if they still ignore it, they could face a fine of RM100,” he said.
“If they persist, we will lodge a report with the state Health Department to shut the place down,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Several people who have come across such situations said people should look out for signs of bite marks on the straws to make sure that they were not “recycled”.
It is learnt that some restaurant workers would even resort to cutting off the tips of straws and reuse them again
Communication manager Josey Wong, 35, said she found bite marks on her straw while having her meal at a popular food outlet.
“I asked a waiter about it and he admitted that the restaurant would recycle drinking straws.
“This is unhygienic as some people use the straw to pick their teeth,” she said.
Sales executive Adeline Goh, 27, also faced a similar situation when she was dining at a seafood restaurant in Butterworth.
“The tip of the drinking straw was flattened after being bitten by someone else.
“I confronted the waiter and he just replaced it with a new one. It was just so disgusting,” she said.
Ong said those who come across such cases should call the council hotline at 04-2637637.
Don't they realize that all kinds of diseases can be spread this way??
Eeeeeeew! I am so grossed out! Thank goodness I still look at the straws before I use them.
Those who operate restaurants, coffee shops etc. have a moral responsibility to maintain good standards of hygiene in order not to put the health of their customers at risk. The profit motive MUST NOT blind them to other more important values and responsibilities. They MUST educated their workers and ensure that utensils, crockery and cutlery are cleaned properly and food/drinks are prepared hygienically.
If you ever encounter such a scenario, please take a photograph of the evidence and call the council hotline at 04-2637637. The culprits must not get away with such disgusting acts!
This is definitely one type of recycling that we do not need and which MUST NOT BE PRACTISED AT ALL!!
pinsysu we shd tell najib dat we dun nid recycled politicians too ... it's harmful to the nation's health & wealth!