Two holiday parks in Cornwall are doing their bit to reduce the amount of plastic waste by ditching plastic straws.
Restaurants at Tolroy Manor in Hayle and St Ives Holiday Village – both part of the John Fowler Holiday Parks group – will no longer use a host of non-recyclable or biodegradable products.
The moves comes following growing pressure by environmental campaigners to reduce the amount of waste -mainly plastic – that ends up in our oceans.
Restaurant manager Charley Dearden told Cornwall Live: “It’s not just plastic straws we are getting rid of. Takeaway boxes are being replaced by ‘compost me’ recycled cardboard boxes. The same with disposable cutlery. We will be using disposable wooden forks for takeaway. Paper bags will replace plastic ones for carrying food items.
“Basically anything you can imagine that is usually used and bad we are ditching.”
He said that it was “about time caterers started taking more responsibility for the masses of plastic used in the industry”.
“Alongside that I think it’s really important to highlight the need for wholesalers who supply us to offer viable alternatives to straws/bags/takeaway boxes,” he added.
“The current options that are readily available are expensive and often impractical. So this decision isn’t taken lightly as a small business, in terms of profitability and convenience.”