It’s the Final Straw! Ban them now, say ocean campaigners

CAMPAIGNERS last night called for the Government to ban singleuse plastic straws.

The Marine Conservative Society has backed a campaign called Final Straw, which says plastic straws that end up on the coastline take up to 500 years to decompose.

Instead of plastic straws – which are not recycled – campaigners say people should use paper straws, or do without.

The call comes amid the Daily Mail’s campaign to Turn the Tide on Plastic. In the US, a Strawless in Seattle strategy has been launched, with the city banning single-use plastic straws from July. Companies in the UK have also taken action, including the Wetherspoon pub chain which is replacing them with paper straws.

Kate Forbes, Scottish parliament member for the Isle of Skye, said plastic rubbish was ‘choking’ the seas, damaging the environment and putting marine wildlife in danger.

Miss Forbes said: ‘I represent a constituency which stretches from the east to the west coasts and I can see the impact of plastics on our seas.

‘Along our coastline, plastics are choking our seas, damaging the environment and risking the lives of seabirds and sea creatures. One of the most common plastic items on the beach are plastic straws.

‘Wetherspoons have indicated that they consume 70 million straws a year in the UK, so the figures are huge.’ Miss Forbes wants to see a ban on plastic straws, but added: ‘Any ban has got to be UKwide because the sea does not respect country borders and plastic straws washed out to sea in the south of England could easily end up on the Highland coastline.’ She also called on pubs and restaurants to ‘stop handing out straws automatically and to only provide biodegradable alternatives’.

The Marine Conservative Society’s Scotland officer, Catherine Gemmell, said: ‘It is fantastic to see Kate Forbes call for a ban on plastic straws as they are one of the many single-use plastic items that we find rising in numbers on our beaches, in our seas and impacting our wildlife.

‘A straw is only used for minutes yet will remain in the environment and our oceans for hundreds of years to come.

‘This is why at MCS we are also calling on all the governments of the UK to put in place a levy on other single-use items such as cutlery and coffee cups to reduce the amount of plastic in use.’

Celebrity opponents of straws include fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who said on her Facebook page ‘ the straw in your cocktail or coffee will be on this planet for ever – very little is recycled, much ends up on the ocean’.