NHS throws away 120m plastic cups every year
The NHS is under fire for throwing away 610 million plastic cups in five years.
The waste amounts to 120million a year – or 334,000 every day.
Louise Edge, of Greenpeace, said: “These huge figures demonstrate just how out of control our relationship with singleuse plastic has become.”
And Justin Madders, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, said: “This is a staggering example of waste in the NHS.” Freedom of Information requests from the Press Association showed 174 English NHS trusts had used 609,830,335 disposable drinks and medicinal cups since 2013.
One London trust – Guy’s and St Thomas’ – bought 30 million in just five years.
But some hospitals are ditching plastic for china cups and glasses.
A Government spokesman said it was “committed to reducing its use of single-use plastics”.