Welcome for the last straw

For all their convenience, plastics are not necessarily the wonder materials they were once considered. The world’s oceans are strewn with discarded plastic, which can cause great harm to sea-life. Mankind really has been inventive when it comes to the many and varied ways in which we destroy our environment.

A reassuring recent trend is for large businesses, especially retailers, to announce a move away from the use of plastic.

This is the sort of virtue signalling behind which we can enthusiastically throw our support. Cynics might sniff that corporations are merely acting in anticipation of legislation which would force them to stop using discardable plastics.

Whether this is so or not, what matters is that action is being taken.

So we congratulate the fast food giant Mcdonald’s on its announcement that it is to replace plastic straws with paper ones across all 1,361 of its UK restaurants.

The restaurant chain’s decision follows similar announcements by number of other players in the sector. We hope more will follow suit.