The last straw

Pub firm to replace supply with eco-friendly type

A LEADING pub chain is to stop using plastic straws in a bid to reduce pollution.

The move by Wetherspoon’s will stop around 300,000 plastic straws being thrown away each year in its Irish pubs.

The straws reportedly take up to 500 years to rot if they are dumped in landfill along with other waste.

The company will replace the plastic straws with biodegradable paper ones from January but it will stop automatically putting plastic straws into drinks unless a customer asks for one.

Other pub, hotel, restaurant, fast-food and cinema chains are under pressure to follow suit.

The moves by the pub trade are part of a wider backlash against plastic waste, which has been backed by the Irish Daily Mail’s campaign to cut down on the number of plastic bottles thrown away each year.

Ireland was one of the first countries in Europe to bring in the plastic bag charge in supermarkets which has helped slash their use. A ban on the use of plastic microbeads in wash-off health and beauty products has also been announced.

A deposit system for plastic bottles to end litter and pollution at the same time would help boost recycling.

Confirming that it will stop using plastic straws by the end of the year and replace them with paper ones, a Wetherspoon’s spokesman said: ‘With immediate effect, straws will no longer be automatically added to drinks, although they remain available for customers if requested. From January, all of the company’s pubs will use biodegradable paper straws.’

The chain has 13 pubs in the country, five in the Republic and eight in the North.

Environmental experts have warned that the worldwide community uses 110million tonnes of plastic every year, and that, in just 33 years, there will be more plastic in the seas than fish.