Ireland to push EU on straws

IRELAND is to urge the European Union to use paper or cardboard straws in an attempt to save marine ecology.

Five hundred plastic straws are generated globally every second, ‘and they virtually all end up in the ocean,’ according to a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Denis Naughten.

Irish people are prepared to use paper and cardboard straws and if the EU as a whole were to do the same it could save trillions of pieces of plastic while safeguarding fish stocks, he will tell a ministerial conference in Brussels on June 14.

Paper straws have recently been introduced in the Dáil restaurant.

Mr Naughten has raised the prospect of an environmental tax on plastic straws – but it would have to apply across the EU.

‘Because of free market conditions, Ireland would not be able to go alone on this as it would arguably be a restraint on trade. The only way about it would be to persuade the whole of the EU to move together,’ the Irish Daily Mail was told.

Mr Naughten recently abandoned a plan to impose a special tax on non-recyclable single use coffee cups, saying he was encouraged by an industry move to biodegradable versions, while environment-conscious customers have also been increasingly bringing their own flasks and cups to be filled at outlets.