Let’s get reusables back on the menu
London Food Link have backed City to Sea's call to get high-street chains and take-away businesses to start accepting reusable coffee cups, containers and water bottles again, following a decline in use as a result of Coronavirus.
In the UK alone, it is estimated that over 7.7 billion plastic water bottles and 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups a year are thrown away – enough to stretch around world roughly five and a half times. In London the average adult buys the equivalent of 175 plastic water bottles every year and in 2016, it is estimated that Londoners bought over a billion single-use plastic water bottles
Since the pandemic hit, there has been a huge demand for single-use plastic and related increase in plastic pollution, with single use cups and containers contributing to the rise. While initial concerns over reusables were understandable over 100 scientists from 18 countries have now published a signed statement to confirm that reusables are safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of forward-thinking independent businesses have started accepting reusables again and others, such as Starbucks and Costa Coffee, have followed suit.
Join London Food Link, Sustain and over 10,000 others who have already signed the petition to ask big chains and the takeaway sector to tackle single-use plastic and accept reusables again.
This campaign is supported by:
- Break Free From Plastic
- Greenpeace UK
- Friends of the Earth
- Marine Conservation Society
- Surfers Against Sewage
- We Have The Power
- Everyday Plastic
- Green Goblet
- Muuse
- Unpackaged
- Conscious Cup
- Chilly's Bottles
- KeepCup
- Sustain
- Less Plastic
Published Wednesday 2 September 2020
London Food Link: London Food Link brings together community food enterprises and projects that are working to make good food accessible to everyone in London to help create a healthy, sustainable and ethical food system for all.
