Billions of Discarded Straws

In an effort to reduce the mountains of plastic refuse we produce day after day, the EU Commission wants to regulate the use of throw-away plastic cutlery. Items such as drinking straws might seem negligible at first, but when you consider that 3.5 million straws are given out a day by McDonald’s in the UK alone, you grasp that even little changes in what single-use items we consume can make a real difference. According to figures released by consulting firm Eunomia, the UK consumes by far the most straws in the EU. Try your coke without a straw next time - it almost tastes the same!