Portsmouth ferry company pledges to join the battle against plastic waste
A FERRY service that sails from Portsmouth is abandoning the millions of plastic items thrown away every year – in favour of greener alternatives.
Condor Ferries will be swapping out plastic straws, cutlery and coffee cups for compostable and reusable products.
The company has already introduced a number of vegetable-based cutlery and coffee cups made from Vegware on Liberation, Rapide and Commodore Clipper – and is looking at further ways to reduce its plastic footprint.
The News’ Final Straw aims to encourage businesses and individuals to ditch single-use plastic use and switch to more environmentally-friendly alternatives.
Vegware uses renewable, lower carbon or recycled materials and can be composted along with food waste.
But according to Condor, passengers use 152,000 forks, 158,000 knives, 93,000 spoons and 42,000 straws along with 557,000 cups and 158,000 lids – every single year.
Paul Luxon, Condor’s CEO, says that the company is hoping to reduce its plastic waste by three quarters over the next three years.
He explained: ‘We fully recognise we have a role to play so our aim is to lessen plastic in circulation by 75 per cent by 2021.
‘Like most other businesses, we accept there is a way to go to achieve this, but we are making progress in evaluating and testing new items for introduction such as biodegrable water bottles and seaweed packaging, all of which are zero-waste.
‘Our passengers too are very aware of environmental issues and I am sure they will welcome the changes we have already made and those in the pipeline.’