Queen joins in by banning straws from palace cafes
‘Committed to reducing environmental impact’
THE campaign to ban plastic straws gathered royal momentum yesterday.
The straws are being removed from the public cafes at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and at Buckingham Palace.
It follows the Scottish Daily Mail’s months-long campaign to turn the tide on plastic pollution.
The decision was announced as the Queen – wearing a deep red coat with matching dress and feathered hat – attended church with Prince Philip yesterday in Sandringham, Norfolk.
Prince Charles recently lent his support to campaigns to protect the oceans from plastic waste.
Last week, he told an audience at the British Academy that the issue was ‘extremely grave and urgent’.
Disposable drink straws are considered a major avoidable scourge of the environment.
Despite being used for an average of only 20 minutes, they can take up to 500 years to decompose – potentially causing problems for wildlife in the process.
It is estimated that up to three billion drink straws are handed out every year in Scotland.
The environmental impact of the ban at the palaces’ cafes – which is due to come into effect ‘imminently’ – is not expected to be huge.
However, it is another symbolic victory for the drive to banish the straws from drinks establishments across the UK. Catering firm Ampersand, which manages the cafes at the palaces, announced it is phasing them out of its supply chain.
Robin Bidgood, the commercial managing director, said: ‘The process to remove plastic straws from our supply chain is well under way.’
The Royal Household has already taken steps to reduce the use of plastics as part of environmental initiatives stretching back many years.
A spokesman said: ‘The Royal Household is committed to reducing its environmental impact and embedding environmental sustainability across the organisation.’
Yesterday, it also emerged the National Trust for Scotland has plans to ban plastic straws from its sites by Friday.
The trust’s head of natural heritage properties, Dominic Driver, said: ‘As a charity who conserve natural habitats across the country, we feel this is an important step to take to protect our countryside and coastline.’
Much of the Mail’s campaign to curb plastic use has centred on the material’s use in the drinks industry.
Following the Scottish Daily Mail’s Banish the Bottles campaign, the Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said a deposit return scheme for bottles and cans could be introduced in Scotland as early as 2019.
Last September, the Scottish Government also announced it would consider a mandatory charge on single use items such as coffee cups.