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Plastic drinking straws should be taxed, disposal firm says


Daksha Rangan
Digital Reporter

Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 8:40 AM - A UK waste disposal company is calling for a tax on plastic drinking straws, encouraging manufacturers to return to biodegradable paper straws.

The call for taxing straws comes after The Recycling Association named Pringles tubes and Lucozade Sport bottles (the latter an energy drink) "villains" of the recycling process.


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In an interview with BBC News, Business Waste described plastic straws as "the ultimate in human wastefulness."

"A plastic straw has a lifespan of around 20 minutes, and then it's thrown away," Mark Hall, a BusinessWaste spokesperson, told the BBC.

"Where recycling facilities exist, most pubs and bars don't bother separating out used straws to recycle because it's fiddly, and, frankly, they've been in the mouth of a stranger."

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Hall told the BBC that plastic straws "the ultimate in human wastefulness," and "a problem that can easily be solved with very little effort."

The company is suggesting a nine-cent plastic straw tax (five pence sterling), following the lead of the UK's plastic bag tax, which has seen a significant drop in the use disposable bags.

SOURCE: BBC News

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