Starbucks to banish plastic straws by 2020
STARBUCKS Coffee, one of the world’s biggest speciality coffee roasters with 11 stores in South Africa, said yesterday it would eliminate plastic straws from all of its locations within two years, citing the environmental threat to oceans.
Starbucks, which was launched in South Africa by JSE-listed Taste Holdings, the operator of Starbucks in South Africa, is the latest retail company to take a stand on plastics.
Within the next four years, local retailer Woolworths want to have an operation that is free of all non-recyclable plastics and last week saw retailer Pick n Pay Pick, in an effort to move away from single-use plastic carrier bags, pilot a compostable bag at its Cape Town V&A Waterfront store, which will determine further industry discussions on alternatives to plastic bags.
Starbucks becomes the largest food and beverage company to do so, as calls to cut waste globally are growing.
The company said yesterday that by 2020, it will be using straws made from biodegradable materials. It already offers alternative straws in Seattle.
The waste issue is coming up in company boardrooms, though Starbucks is taking the lead among global companies on straws. In February, Dunkin’ Donuts said that it would eliminate polystyrene foam cups from its stores by 2020.
McDonald’s shareholders voted down a proposal requesting a report on plastic straws in May.
McDonald’s recently said that it would switch to paper straws in the UK and Ireland by next year, and test alternatives to plastic straws in some US locations.
The burger chain said this year that it would use only recycled or other environmentally friendly materials for its soda cups, Happy Meal boxes and other packaging by 2025.
Plastic drinking straws make up only about 4 percent of the plastic trash by number of pieces, and far less by weight. Straws add up to about 2 000 tons of the nearly 9 million tons of plastic waste that ends up in waters around the globe each year.
On Wednesday, the challenges and opportunities in the plastics industry in South Africa will be discussed at the annual Innovation Forum in Johannesburg.
Experts from the CSIR will share their expertise and capabilities regarding research and the plastics industry will share challenges in the industry. The objective of this forum is to encourage collaboration between industries in the plastics sector and research institutions to find solutions to the challenges faced by the sector.