Pizza Express has become the largest restaurant chain yet to back the Standard’s campaign to stop plastic straws being handed out to diners and drinkers.
It vowed that all 460 of its branches around the UK — including 98 within the M25 — will switch to biodegradable alternatives made from corn starch or paper by the summer.
The company has been handing out some 1.8 million plastic straws a year in London alone but said it began reconsidering its use of single-use plastic after getting a letter from a five-year-old regular customer.
The little girl, Ava, told them: “I am writing to please ask you to stop using plastic straws as they are very bad for animals. They can get stuck in their mouths and noses.”
Best plastic straw alternatives - in pictures
The commitment is a fresh victory for the Standard’s Last Straw campaign, which is calling on all restaurants, clubs, pubs, bars and cafes to ban the plastic items — or at least have a plan to phase them out — before the end of 2018.
Pizza Express said: “We are very conscious of the detrimental impact of plastics on wildlife and the environment. We are proud to support the Evening Standard’s The Last Straw Campaign. We — and on behalf of Ava — congratulate them on continuing to raise awareness and inspire positive change across the industry.”
Another major operator, nightclub, bar and restaurant group Novus Leisure, which owns the Tiger Tiger, Loop, Forge and Balls Brothers brands, also pledged to scrap the items at its 38 London venues.
Chief executive Toby Smith said: “In 2017 the Novus group used 10.5 million straws across its business.
Following the campaign launched recently by the Evening Standard we are phasing out the use of plastic straws in the coming weeks, to be replaced by a biodegradable option to be made available to customers.”
A third group, Drake & Morgan, which has 20 restaurants and bars across London including the Anthologist in the City and the Fable in Holborn, pledged to remove all plastic straws from April.
Independent east London group Electric Star Pubs, which has five sites, has also done so.
Operations director Steve Macri said: “We’re on board with the Last Straw campaign and are in the process of phasing them out from our estate over the next couple of weeks. They’ll be replaced by paper straws.”
