This ban is part of Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow 2025 commitments and follows on from the banning of plastic straws in May 2018.
Ana Svab, corporate responsibility manager at Sodexo UK & Ireland said: “Removing plastic stirrers and straws back in 2018 resulted in a reduction of 1.8 million of each being used and thrown away. As with straws and stirrers, we are asking our teams to run down their existing stocks of these items to avoid creating any further unnecessary waste.
“We have already made positive steps towards reducing the amount of unrecyclable plastic products used in our business and we are thrilled with the efforts made by our teams to phase out their use of these products and the response received from our clients and customers.”
Over the past few years for every plastic bag sold, Sodexo donated to the marine Conservation Society (MCS) to help the organisation ‘turn the tide’ on plastic pollution on beaches and the ocean.
Last Autumn over 40 Sodexo employees joined the MSC at four beach cleans across the UK where they collected over 12Kg of rubbish.
In October 2019 Sodexo won the ‘Best Waste Prevention Project’ (non-food) at the annual waste2zero Awards. The WasteLESS Week campaign encourages Sodexo teams to look at the volume of waste generated at their site and how they can reduce their waste.
Svab added: “Every year we are amazed and thrilled by the engagement from our teams for the WasteLESS Week campaign. Seeing initiatives born out of WasteLESS Week go on to become how we do business every day means we really are making a difference.
“As a responsible business we acknowledge that action is critical to ensure that we do as much as we can to improve the quality of life of future generations and reduce the impact our business operations have on the environment.”