Kudos! To The Companies that Banned Plastic

A quick fact check: Do you know a trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year and only 5 percent of them get recycled?

Tighten your seat belts and brace for some staggering facts

Ø  According to Ocean Conservancy, our oceans are filled with more than 150 million tons of plastic

Ø  A major contributor is the 500 million straws that Americans use daily, says National Geographic

Ø  On a global scale, almost 300 million tons of plastic are produced annually — half of which is single-use products

A few companies are doing away with single-use items such as straws and bags and taking sustainability initiatives to make an impact and to cut back on carbon footprints.

Let’s see who some of the saviours are:

McDonald’s

In 2018, MarketWatch in a report stated that McDonald’s plans to stock their 36,000 restaurants in 122 locations around the world with packaging that are from renewable, recycled or certified sustainable sources. The report added that by 2025 all their locations will be compliant.

Carlsberg

Do you recall the plastic ring that holds a six-pack of beer together? Carlsberg, the Danish brewer, will be the first beer producer to get rid of them. Now, they intend to use recyclable glue to hold together their cans. Carlsberg already is abolishing 1,200 tons of plastic per year and it intends to reduce the amount of plastic in traditional multipacks by up to 76 percent. Cheers to that!!!

Walt Disney

About 175 million straws and 13 million stirrers are used at Disney theme parks and resorts every year. The Walt Disney Company said it will ban single-use plastic straws and stirrers by the summer of 2019 and did eliminate that waste. Disney wants to cut down on single-use plastic bags with reusable ones that visitors can opt to buy. And, Disney has plans to reduce the amount of plastic in guest rooms by 80 percent. Now that’s what we call a happy start.

Nestlé

World’s largest packaged food company Nestlé in 2019 threw to the bin all plastic straws associated with its products. They’re also transitioning Nesquik drinks from plastic to paper containers while Nestlé Waters will increase the recycled PET content in its bottles to 50 percent in US. By 2025, Nestlé has pledged to make 100 percent of ALL its product’s packaging recyclable or reusable. That’s quite a commitment.

Starbucks

By 2020, Starbucks promised to eliminate all plastic straws from their 28,000 stores. Will that affect customers’ hankering for iced coffee or tea? They have an idea. Instead of straws, for all cold beverages they will use recyclable, strawless plastic lid. And for frothier drinks such as Frappuccinos that are mainly straw-dependent Starbucks will offer straws made of materials such as paper and compostable plastic but only by request. They say they will eliminate one billion plastic straws each year if they make this a religion.

Sodexo

Sodexo, the foodservice company, provides 13,000 cafeteria meals and allowances to schools, offices and other such venues every year. In 2019 they began a new sustainability plan that eliminates 245 million single-use items from their locations. Plastic bags and stirrers are no longer available. By 2025, they vowed to get rid of polystyrene foam items. These include cups, lids, and food containers.

United Airlines

United Airlines has said NO to plastic straws and cocktail picks on their flights and from November 2019 they are giving a biodegradable bamboo alternative to their flyers. UA said that it felt that straws don’t biodegrade and are nearly impossible to recycle. Quite a take off in the right direction, must agree.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings

In 2019, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings declared they were saying bon voyage to single-use plastic straws for its fleet of 26 ships. And to add spice to it two of their island destinations — Great Stirrup Cay and Harvest Caye (in the Bahamas and Belize) are banning single-use plastic straws too. Impact? Around 50 million straws across its fleet stopped every year.

Hyatt

In 2019, Hyatt said it plans to eliminate single-use plastic straws and drink picks at their properties. To offer eco-friendly alternatives for other products, Hyatt has also teamed up with Clean the World, a non-profit that collects used soap and shampoo from hotels, recycles them, and donates them to communities in need.

Red Lobster

By 2019 end Red Lobster’s 700 restaurants started offering plastic straws only when a customer requested for one. The company hopes to offer an eco-friendlier alternative to straws by 2020. This shift will eliminate 150 million plastic straws every year. The company says it is doing this to reduce the oceanic plastic pollution that is killing millions of marine animals every year.

Ecoloom

We are perhaps one company who thought about nature first and then came into business. Every product you see on our website ecoloom.com.au they have been brain-stormed to bring out one key element. NATURE FIRST. The jute bags, the soil shirt, the menstrual pad, the newspaper pencil set, the steel straws…Everything have been made to save the earth from further dent. We promise to strive further to upgrade our products so that you never return cold-hearted. To know more about best khadi garments in Australia and leather accessories, please visit our website www.ecoloom.com.au.