When was the last time you went to your favorite restaurant to get
your meal and without thinking about it you grab a straw or even two or three
straws? Also I am sure that you were given a plastic fork, spoon and a plastic
cup. Well in London they have realized that this is a problem and they have
decided to do something about it.
As you probably already know, recycling is something that is
gaining popularity in many countries, especially now that we understand how
expensive oil and plastics can be. And not only the fact that it is difficult
to find oil and the amount of work that it requires to become plastics but also
the incredibly negative impact that this has on our planet.
We all know what straws and other waste that come from restaurants
do not always get recycled or end up in the garbage, but they also end up in
rivers and the sea. This is having an extremely negative impact to our natural
resources. This is the reason why London is coming up with a ban on straws and
possibly other plastic items. This new ban may not just affect restaurants but
it might also affect bars and cafes.
One way that London restaurants are doing to reduce their amount
of waste is to reduce the overall use of plastics at their restaurants. Not
only traditional restaurants are working hard on reducing the amount of
plastics that are used at their restaurants but also fast food restaurants are
looking in to ways of doing this as well. One simple way of doing this would be
something as easy as only giving one straw per customer, before you had a straw
dispenser and in many cases people would grab more than one straw, by doing
this it will allow them to control how many straws a person can get.
This will not only help the environment but it will also be great
for business, restaurants spend thousands of dollars a year in plastic forks,
spoons and knifes. Lowering the amount of plastics used in their restaurants
can help the restaurants lower the cost of operation to provide better service
to the public. Different sources have reported that several restaurants in one
of the most popular areas of London will start working on this as soon as
possible.
At the end of the day no matter if the so called “Straw War” will
be great for business but it will also have a great benefit to the environment,
lowering the usage of plastic products can have a great impact and it is very
important that more restaurants and other businesses start working on similar
bans to help our planet. Other countries should look at this example and they
should start passing laws that will be applied in similar situations. It is
incredible the amount of plastic waste that is used on the daily basis, and the
problem is not just straws, but just take a look at plastic bottles of water,
unless you leave in an area where clean water is an issue, most likely it is
not necessary to drink water out of a plastic bottle to just leave it in the
garbage or even on the street.
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