Coca Cola Amatil dumps plastic straws and stirrers

ELI GREENBLAT
JANUARY 14, 2019
SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER
First it was plastic bags. Now they’re coming for straws and coffee stirrers.
The nation’s biggest maker and distributor of soft drinks has declared it will no longer distribute plastic drinking straws or stirrers in Australia, and will instead stock fully recyclable and biodegradable FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) accredited paper straws.
Coca-Cola Amatil, whose beverage brands include the iconic Coca Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Mount Franklin water, Kirks, Canadian Club and Barista Bros, said the decision was another step forward in the company’s efforts to reduce single-use plastics.
“We’re serious about playing our part in reducing unnecessary plastic packaging,” CC Amatil chief executive Alison Watkins said on Monday.
“We’ve heard the community message loud and clear – that unnecessary packaging is unacceptable and we all need to work together to reduce the amount entering litter streams, the environment and the oceans.”
The war on plastic straws comes after environmentalists and activists pushed the supermarkets to eliminate single-use plastic bags in their stores last year, which triggered widespread confusion, frustration and a drop in sales for leading chain Woolworths as shoppers struggled to adapt.
McDonald’s has said it would phase out plastic straws across Australia by 2020, while Starbucks has pledged to get rid of plastic straws from all its stores within two years.
Environmental groups say Australians use about 10 million straws every day, or 3.5 billion a year. Greenpeace Australia wants to see an end to all single-use plastic, saying it chokes up the environment.
However an inquiry called by the federal government 10 years ago revealed that less than 0.2 per cent of landfill was made up of thrown-out plastic bags and that penalising people by charging them for bags was an uneconomic and ineffective to reduce litter.
The Productivity Commission inquiry, released in 2006, found the case to phase out plastic bags was “particularly weak’’, with the policy of charging money for plastic bags similarly unsound.
Meanwhile the CC Amatil, whose portfolio includes soft drinks, water, coffee and alcoholic beverages, said the new paper drinking straws would be sourced from suppliers BioPak and Austraw.
They will be made available through Amatil’s ordering platform to around 115,000 outlets nationwide including grocery, petrol and convenience stores, bars, cafes and quick service restaurants.
Distribution of the old single-use plastic drinking straws and stirrers would cease as stocks run out over the next two months. the company said. New sustainable paper straws would be available from February. Work was continuing on sustainable solutions for straws on Tetra Pak-supplied packaging, as well as for plastic spoons and scoops used with frozen drinks, CCA said.
Ms Watkins said the intention was for 100 per cent of Coca-Cola Amatil’s Australian packaging to be fully recyclable by 2025, including all bottles, cans, plastic wrap, straws, glass and cardboard.
“We are working towards phasing out unnecessary and problematic single-use plastics entirely, through improved design, innovation or the use of recycled alternatives,” Ms Watkins said.
ELI GREENBLATSENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER