Knives out! Top food chain Leon ditches plastic cutlery

HIGH street restaurant chain Leon is to ditch plastic cutlery, it declared yesterday.

Throwaway knives, forks and spoons which end up choking the environment will be phased out within months at its 50-plus outlets.

The announcement is a victory for the Daily Mail’s campaign to end the scourge of plastics polluting the planet and will pile pressure on rivals to follow suit.

Coffee house Le Pain Quotiden has already switched to biodegradable alternatives but the trailblazers shame the majority of high street chains which still hand out plastic disposables.

Millions of pieces of plastic cutlery a year are thought to be given away with salads and coffees in shops.

A tide of disposable plastic ends up in the oceans where it threatens 700 marine species, washes up on beaches and gets broken down into microscopic particles that enter the food chain after fish eat them.

Yesterday big- name stores refused to admit how much cutlery they dish out to customers, stonewalling questions from the Daily Mail about throwaway items. Only they know exactly how much disposable cutlery they use – and they are keeping it secret.

Popular outlets EAT, Itsu, Wasabi, Greggs, Starbucks, Caffè Nero, Costa Coffee, Boots, McDonald’s and Five Guys all declined to answer how much plastic cutlery passes through their stores.

Supermarkets selling ready-toeat food including Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Asda, also declined to answer. Sandwich chain Pret admitted: ‘We don’t have a figure available to share with you, but we know it’s a big number.’ But the chain said it was trialling biodegradable cutlery and had a ‘long-term plan’ to help the environment.

Healthy fast food chain Leon said: ‘We are proud to announce we are switching from plastic straws to paper alternatives. We will also be moving from plastic cutlery to compostable and biodegradable alternatives.

‘As soon as we have reached the last straw (and knife, fork and spoon), we’ll be welcoming these better straws and cutlery.’ Also yesterday food and juice bar Crussh pledged to remove plastic cutlery from its outlets by the end of 2018, and plastic straws by Easter.

A spokesman said: ‘We are beginning a trial of compostable cutlery imminently, and will have removed plastic cutlery from our business by the end of the year.’

Le Pain Quotiden said all its cutlery was already made from biodegradable potato starch. Upmarket grocer Whole Foods Market said its cutlery was ‘vegware’ – made from renewable or recycled materials that can all be recycled along with food waste.

Julian Kirby, from Friends of the Earth, said: ‘Several companies have announced welcome steps to get rid of plastic straws, cutlery and packaging, but without government action their good work will be undermined by those that refuse to act.

‘Instead of stonewalling, high street eateries should be transparent about their contribution to the plastic pollution crisis. The problem will be harder to fix if we don’t know how much of this toxic rubbish is being released into our environment, and where from.’

Dr Chris Tuckett, the Marine Conservation Society’s director of programmes, added: ‘We’re not surprised that some high street chains are reticent to admit to the amount of plastic cutlery they hand out since the numbers would undoubtedly be shockingly high.

‘Since 2008, our beach clean volunteers have found high numbers of plastic cutlery, fast food trays and straws on UK beaches.’

Tisha Brown, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace, said: ‘A lot of retailers have been taken by surprise by the strength of public concern over throwaway plastic, and are still approaching plastic waste as a trivial detail they can sweep into the oceans.

‘But some businesses are beginning to understand that the public concern isn’t going away until the plastic does.

‘We know that major changes need some planning, and that ambitious plans take time to implement, but we would urge the slower-moving companies to start taking this issue seriously now, before their caution starts to look like stubbornness.

‘The thing every company can do straight away is be transparent about the extent of their plastic use. As always, the first step is admitting you have a problem.’