Transport firms are asked to stop handing out plastic straws
RAIL and ferry operators are being urged to join the fight against straws and other single-use plastics.
Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, is seeking commitments from a range of organisations, including ScotRail and Caledonian MacBrayne, to urge them to take action to help the environment.
She has also written to the Scottish National Galleries and National Museums Scotland asking them to take similar action in their public cafes, and has also called for action in catering and canteen facilities by other public bodies and agencies.
The SNP member has launched a “final straw” campaign, asking firms and consumers to stop using disposable plastic straws and for governments to ban them. She has asked companies to go “strawfree” by not automatically providing plastic straws with drinks and by providing paper or biodegradable straws when requested in an attempt to reduce the estimated three billion plastic straws being thrown away each year in Scotland.
Ms Forbes said: “On trains and ferries connecting our communities, we can go without a plastic straw in our drinks.
“People working in the public sector can get through a lunch break without a plastic straw in their drink. And in the cafes in Scotland’s world-class museums and galleries, we can showcase to international visitors that Scotland is serious when it comes to protecting our environment.
“This is a great chance for our public sector to lead by example, to change the way a nation thinks about disposable plastics and our responsibilities.”
Last Thursday the Scottish Government announced plastic cotton buds are to be outlawed.