Popular pub chain Wetherspoons is to ban plastic straws at its pubs across the borough by the end of the year as part of a new war on waste.
The move by the company will help reduce the number of straws going to landfill – which reportedly take over 500 years to decompose.
The pub will also now stop automatically adding the plastic straws to drinks with immediate effect, but they will be available on request.
New biodegradable paper straws will be used by all the pubs owned by the chain from January 2018.
Wetherspoons chief executive John Hutson said: “These changes are part of an overall commitment from the company to reduce the amount of non-recyclable waste produced
“We believe that Wetherspoon pub-goers will welcome this.”
Earlier this year, UK pub chain All Bar One took the lead on eliminating plastic straws from pubs and bars in the UK, pledging to phase out their use at its bars as part of its #strawssuck campaign.
The chain used to serve plastic straws in 25% of its drinks, the equivalent of 13,000 a day across all its its venues, or 4.7 million a year.
However from 14 June, All Bar One said it would be phasing out its use of plastic straws completely, replacing them where necessary with eco-friendly alternatives.
Good news. It would be great if more companies switched away from using plastic where possible; if impossible, use of recyclable material would be an improvement.