Leading London event caterer, Seasoned, has officially eliminated plastic straws and stirrers throughout its business. The initiative began sixth months ago and has gone from strength to strength as they have now switched to eco-friendly materials.
Seasoned looked into a number of alternative options from compostable “bio-plastics” derived from corn starch, multi-use straws made of paper, metal or bamboo and even edible straws made from seaweed.
The environmentally friendly straws that they have now adopted are made with FSC approved paper, printed with water based inks and are packed in biodegradable cello as well as being fulling compostable and marine friendly.
For Seasoned, this is an important environmental commitment because plastic products are sent to landfill at a rapid rate and are causing monumental waste issues. Additionally, the large carbon footprint that such products produce due to the manufacturing process is a great concern.
Approximately 8.5 billion plastic straws thrown away each year, contributing to at least 150 million tons of plastic in the oceans. Around two billion plastic straws are thought to be thrown away each year in London – as many as in the whole of Italy – making London the plastic straw capital of Europe. They would have a combined weight of 1,000 tonnes, equivalent to three fully laden jumbo jets!
Colin Sayers, Managing Partner of Seasoned, commenting on his company’s achievement said: “We’re incredibly proud that our efforts to change to paper straws has now saved over 10,000 plastics straws from going to landfill. We are continuously reviewing our suppliers and processes across the business to see where we can make it as eco-friendly as possible and achieve our goal of completely eliminating the use of single-use plastic within our business by 2020.”