Costa joins war on plastic straws

After Waitrose and Morrisons banished them...

BRITAIN’S biggest coffee shop chain is to join the war on waste and stop offering plastic straws.

The move by Costa follows similar announcements by restaurant group Wagamama, the pub chain JD Wetherspoon and bar group All Bar One.

Both Waitrose and Morrisons also said they would stop selling plastic straws.

The changes come after Theresa May called for an end to the use of ‘avoidable plastic’ over the next 25 years, following the Daily Mail’s campaign to Turn the Tide on Plastic.

Estimates suggest straws can take up to 500 years to break down after being dumped in landfill. They are among the most common pieces of litter found on British beaches. Small and light, they can end up lodged in the nostrils of sea turtles and perforate the stomachs of penguins.

Costa, which has more than 2,200 branches, currently uses 19million straws a year and 26million stroons – plastic straws with spoons on the end. Both will be replaced with a non-plastic alternative. Costa boss Jason Cotta, said: ‘As part of our commitment to reducing waste and increasing recycling, we are removing plastic straws from our stores.

‘Last year we removed straws from our condiment units and now serve them on request only. We will launch a non-plastic alternative straw this year as part of an on-going review into all our packaging and takeaway cups.’

However, coffee shop chains face a bigger challenge over the use of disposable cups. The existing design comes with a sealed plastic lining that makes them difficult to recycle and millions are discarded every year. MPs have suggested introducing a 25p ‘latte levy’ on these cups to encourage people to switch to reusable alternatives, or cups that can be recycled along with paper waste.

Wagamama said the removal of all plastic straws from its 128 UK restaurants will prevent 7million polluting the environment each year.

Laura Parry of the Marine Conservation Society said: ‘For decades plastic straws have been handed out like there’s no tomorrow – sadly for some marine creatures a straw in the gullet means there has been no tomorrow.

‘Our message is if you’re a business, stop handing them out, unless it’s absolutely necessary; and if you’re a consumer, just say no.’

The announcement came as British supermarkets were accused of pumping out more than 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging a year. That would fill enough large skips to extend from London to Sydney – or cover all of Greater London to a depth of an inch.

Supermarkets are highly secretive about how much plastic they use to package goods, citing commercial confidentiality. However, research by waste industry experts Eunomia suggest the figure is at least 800,000 tonnes (787,000 tons) and could even be double that.

Only two supermarkets, Aldi and