Knives out! Top food chain Leon announces it will ditch plastic cutlery from its outlets within months

  • Fast food chain Leon has joined war on plastic and will ditch throwaway cutlery 
  • Plastic knives, forks and spoons to be phased out within months at its outlets
  • Move is a victory for the effort to end the scourge of plastics polluting the planet 

High street restaurant chain Leon is to ditch plastic cutlery, it declared yesterday.

Throwaway knives, forks and spoons which end up choking the environment will be phased out within months at its 50-plus outlets.

The announcement is a victory for the Daily Mail’s campaign to end the scourge of plastics polluting the planet and will pile pressure on rivals to follow suit.

Coffee house Le Pain Quotidien has already switched to biodegradable alternatives but the trailblazers shame the majority of high street chains which still hand out plastic disposables.

High street restaurant chain Leon is to ditch plastic cutlery, it declared yesterday (file photo)

High street restaurant chain Leon is to ditch plastic cutlery, it declared yesterday (file photo)

Millions of pieces of plastic cutlery a year are thought to be given away with salads and coffees in shops.

A tide of disposable plastic ends up in the oceans where it threatens 700 marine species, washes up on beaches and gets broken down into microscopic particles that enter the food chain after fish eat them.

Yesterday big-name stores refused to admit how much cutlery they dish out to customers, stonewalling questions from the Daily Mail about throwaway items. Only they know exactly how much disposable cutlery they use – and they are keeping it secret.

Popular outlets EAT, Itsu, Wasabi, Greggs, Starbucks, Caffè Nero, Costa Coffee, Boots, McDonald’s and Five Guys all declined to answer how much plastic cutlery passes through their stores.

Supermarkets selling ready-to-eat food including Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Asda, also declined to answer. 

Sandwich chain Pret admitted: ‘We don’t have a figure available to share with you, but we know it’s a big number.’ But the chain said it was trialling biodegradable cutlery and had a ‘long-term plan’ to help the environment.

Throwaway knives, forks and spoons which end up choking the environment will be phased out within months at its 50-plus outlets, co-founders Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent said

Throwaway knives, forks and spoons which end up choking the environment will be phased out within months at its 50-plus outlets, co-founders Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent said

Healthy fast food chain Leon said: ‘We are proud to announce we are switching from plastic straws to paper alternatives. We will also be moving from plastic cutlery to compostable and biodegradable alternatives.

‘As soon as we have reached the last straw (and knife, fork and spoon), we’ll be welcoming these better straws and cutlery.’ Also yesterday food and juice bar Crussh pledged to remove plastic cutlery from its outlets by the end of 2018, and plastic straws by Easter.

A spokesman said: ‘We are beginning a trial of compostable cutlery imminently, and will have removed plastic cutlery from our business by the end of the year.’

Le Pain Quotidien said all its cutlery was already made from biodegradable potato starch. Upmarket grocer Whole Foods Market said its cutlery was ‘vegware’ – made from renewable or recycled materials that can all be recycled along with food waste.

MPs urge supermarkets to follow Iceland's lead 

Two hundred MPs have written to the largest supermarkets to demand they follow the lead of Iceland, which is removing plastic packaging from all its own-label products by 2023. 

MPs led by Labour’s Catherine West asked Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, M&S and Budgens if they would follow suit. 

They said Iceland’s move ‘is an important step in preventing further damage to our environment’.

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Julian Kirby, from Friends of the Earth, said: ‘Several companies have announced welcome steps to get rid of plastic straws, cutlery and packaging, but without government action their good work will be undermined by those that refuse to act.

‘Instead of stonewalling, high street eateries should be transparent about their contribution to the plastic pollution crisis. The problem will be harder to fix if we don’t know how much of this toxic rubbish is being released into our environment, and where from.’

Dr Chris Tuckett, the Marine Conservation Society’s director of programmes, added: ‘We’re not surprised that some high street chains are reticent to admit to the amount of plastic cutlery they hand out since the numbers would undoubtedly be shockingly high.

‘Since 2008, our beach clean volunteers have found high numbers of plastic cutlery, fast food trays and straws on UK beaches.’

Tisha Brown, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace, said: ‘A lot of retailers have been taken by surprise by the strength of public concern over throwaway plastic, and are still approaching plastic waste as a trivial detail they can sweep into the oceans.

‘But some businesses are beginning to understand that the public concern isn’t going away until the plastic does.

‘We know that major changes need some planning, and that ambitious plans take time to implement, but we would urge the slower-moving companies to start taking this issue seriously now, before their caution starts to look like stubbornness.

‘The thing every company can do straight away is be transparent about the extent of their plastic use. As always, the first step is admitting you have a problem.’

We will make all our 1.8bn water bottles recyclable, promises Evian 

Water giant Evian has joined the global fight against plastic pollution by pledging to make all of its bottles from recycled material by 2025

Water giant Evian has joined the global fight against plastic pollution by pledging to make all of its bottles from recycled material by 2025

Evian has pledged to make all of the 1.8billion bottles it produces each year from recycled plastic by 2025. At present it is around 25 per cent.

The mineral water company, part of French food giant Danone, has become the latest big brand to heed efforts by the Daily Mail and others including naturalist David Attenborough to curb the use of polluting plastic.

Supermarket Iceland, coffee chain Costa and fast-food giant McDonald’s have all announced similar decisions in the last month.

Evian, the world’s third-largest bottled water company, said it would redesign its packaging, accelerate recycling and recover plastic waste from nature. Global brand director Patricia Oliva said: ‘We want to adopt a circular model where 100 per cent of our plastic bottles will become bottles again.

‘This will enable plastic to evolve from potential waste to become a valuable resource.’

In the process which Evian currently uses to recycle plastic, clear ‘PET’ plastic as used in bottles cannot be recycled more than three times because the quality suffers.

Evian said new technology means it will be able to recycle the plastic again and again, retaining the same quality.

Theresa May this month unveiled the Government’s 25-year plan for the environment which seeks to eradicate avoidable plastic waste in Britain by 2042.

This follows a ban on plastic microbeads, common in body scrubs and shower gels.

Eight million tonnes of plastic – bottles, packaging and other waste – enter the ocean every year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

McDonald’s said on Tuesday it would switch to environmentally friendly packaging materials and offer recycling in all its restaurants. It aims to get all its packaging from renewable, recycled or certified sources by 2025.

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