Oakman Inns ban plastic straws
Pub group Oakman Inns will stop using plastic drinking straws in its venues from 22 April as part of its ‘ban the straw' campaign.
Until now, the company has gone through more than 100,000 plastic straws a month across its venues. From this weekend, on Earth Day, if customers ask for a straw, they will be offered an eco-friendly alternative.
Chief executive Peter Borg-Neal said: "It sounds ridiculous, but it is entirely accurate to say, that every plastic straw that was ever made, still exists today. They pollute landfills, rivers, roadsides, sewers, beaches and of course oceans and this relatively small amount that this pub group is taking out of circulation, needs to be repeated by every one of my colleagues across the hospitality industry."
Alex Ford, Oakman's operations director, said; "Yes, the UK has introduced a charge for plastic carrier bags and has banned microbeads, the tiny plastic balls used in cosmetics and cleaning products, but I believe we all have to do more. Because pretty soon, every fish we eat will have ingested some plastic and that will become a truly global environmental disaster that will probably be impossible to solve."
Oakman Inns was founded by Borg-Neal with its first site, the Akeman Tring, in 2007, and now has a portfolio of 18 sites.
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