No more plastic straws with Yakult drinks

SINGAPORE — Yakult Singapore will stop providing straws from the end of the year, the company said in a Facebook post on Thursday (Dec 27).

The announcement comes as a growing number of food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants and cafes around the world have joined the movement to cut down on the use of plastics.   

Even entire cities have jumped on the bandwagon. Most recently, the authorities in Bali have enacted a ban on single-use plastics, including shopping bags, styrofoam food packets and straws.

In its post, Yakult Singapore said that it will be removing straws from two of its products — Yakult and Yakult Ace Light — “from end December 2018 onwards”, as part of efforts “in contributing to environment protection and sustainability”.

Yakult, a probiotic milk beverage, can be “consumed directly from the bottle by removing the foil cap,” the firm added.

In Singapore, companies that have announced plans to eliminate plastic straws include KFC, Starbucks, Burger King and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).

In June this year, KFC announced that it would no longer provide plastic caps and straws for dine-in customers at its 84 outlets in Singapore, a move that will see a reduction of 17.8 metric tonnes of single-use plastics in a year.

The next month, global coffee giant Starbucks also said it would ditch all plastic straws at its stores around the world by 2020.

And in October, Burger King pledged to remove plastic straws and lids for their cold drinks for dine-in customers at its 42 outlets in Singapore.

Since Oct 1, dining establishments and five themed attractions across RWS have also stopped providing customers with plastic straws, a move that will save more than three million, or 1.2 tonnes of, plastic straws a year, the integrated resort said.