As well as banning plastic straws and stirrers from all sites from 31 July and 30 September respectively, the company will also ‘drastically’ reduce the amount of disposable cups, cutlery, and food containers used by expanding its ‘return and reuse’ scheme.
It hopes this will see “annual consumption of more than one million plastic straws disappear from Elior sites.”
Company chief executive, Catherine Roe, said: “The catering industry’s widespread use of disposable plastics – which rarely end up being recycled correctly – is of growing concern to Elior.
“Our new policy tackles the issue head on and lays out a three-year plan to achieve a sharp reduction in the volume of single-use of plastics in our supply chain and operations.”
Sodexo in the UK and Ireland has also banned the purchase of all plastic straws and stirrers.
The company says it is committed to phase out single use plastic bags and polystyrene foam items such as cups, lids and food containers by 2020.
Edwina Hughes, corporate responsibility director at Sodexo UK and Ireland, says: “We accept that the challenge single use plastics presents is large, and we will continue to scrutinise their use in our business and how we manage the waste to ensure we are doing all we can to reduce the impact of our operations on the environment.
“Prevention is a key step in addressing this issue and we will always endeavour to prevent waste where we can. However, where disposables are still necessary we will encourage the use of an environmentally friendly alternative. Any improvements we can make, we will make.
“This will not only help us meet our environmental targets but more importantly, it will go some way to reduce the impact plastic is having on the environment.
“Action is critical to ensure that we do as much as we can to improve the quality of life of future generations, which is why our work in this area does not stop here. Looking to the future, we are working towards a situation where all our packaging is widely recycled.”