Network Rail wants to ban plastic cutlery and cups from major stations by 2020
Network Rail is to ban retailers at some of its stations from supplying plastic cutlery and cups in a push to become more environmentally friendly.
By the end of 2020, retailers at some of the biggest and busiest rail stations will also have to implement a coffee cup recycling scheme and expand the roll out of coffee ground recycling. More than 20m cups of coffee are sold to the 900m people who pass in and out of stations each year.
Network Rail in one of the UK’s largest retail landlords, housing merchants such as Wetherspoons, Greggs and Caffe Nero.
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It has already written to the 150 retail brands outlining its plans. London Victoria and Paddington stations have already begun to trial coffee-cup recycling, which sees cups reprocessed into new materials that can be used to make benches, decking and reusable cups.
Earlier Network Rail also installed free water fountains across major stations including Charing Cross, Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New Street in a bid to cut waste created by plastic bottles.
Chief executive of Network Rail Mark Carne said: “Network Rail has an important responsibility to the British public which goes much further than travel. We manage Britain’s biggest and busiest stations and we have to ensure we are using that role to make sensible and ethical decisions to protect our environment.
“That’s why today we’re proud to announce that we will be tackling some of the biggest sustainability issues we face head on.”
Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said: “We fully support the initiative from Network Rail. Wetherspoon has already stopped using plastic straws in its pubs and is undertaking a number of other environmentally friendly initiatives across its pubs.
“These will be complemented by the actions of Network Rail.”
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