Now Pizza Express bans plastic straws

Company to act after letter from five-year-old girl

PIZZA Express is to stop using plastic straws after a hand-written plea from a five-year-old customer.

The little girl, Ava, made the request after learning how they harm wildlife if discarded on beaches or in the countryside.

The straws often end up lodged in the nostrils of sea turtles and perforating penguins’ stomachs. More than ten million people have seen a YouTube video of a sea tur-Wagamama tle with a straw stuck in its nose.

Ava wrote that the straws are ‘very bad for animals’ because ‘they can get stuck in their mouths and noses’, asking: ‘Could you only use straws if people ask for them as I don’t want animals to get sick?’

Pizza Express will no longer offer plastic straws in its 470-plus restaurants, reducing the number in circulation by six million a year. It will switch to paper alternatives by this summer.

The move is part of a growing backlash against the use of ‘avoidable’ single use plastic. Costa coffee shops, Wetherspoon pubs, and All Bar One are among those withdrawing plastic straws. Waitrose and Morrisons have said they will switch from plastic straws to paper.

The action represents another victory for the Daily Mail’s Turn The Tide On Plastic campaign after Theresa May this month pledged to tackle the use of plastic packaging in supermarkets.

Pizza Express managing director Zoe Bowley said: ‘At Pizza Express we are very conscious of the detrimental impact of plastics on wildlife and the environment.

‘We received a letter in 2017 from one of our customers, Ava, aged five, highlighting this impact and it spurred us on to continue working hard to significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste through our restaurants. We have already taken the decision to stop using plastic straws in our restaurants and will move to a biodegradable paper straw by this summer.’

Gail’s Bakery, which has 20 branches across London and uses biodegradable takeaway cutlery made from potato starch, is banning the straws immediately.

Co-founder Tom Molnar said: ‘This is a healthy commitment for businesses to make and we applaud the Daily Mail for backing the issue. We shouldn’t stop this movement until every business, large and small, has switched away from plastic straws.’

Bill’s, a chain of 82 restaurants, will remove millions of plastic straws from circulation when it stops offering them next month.

Plastic pieces snagged on coral reefs are infecting them with disease, scientists warn.

A Cornell University study found 11.1billion plastic items, which carry harmful bugs, in reefs across Asia-Pacific – raising their risk of deadly infection by 89 per cent.

Corals ingest plastic because it tastes good to them but it deprives them of light and oxygen, making it easier for bacteria to take hold.