Scotland’s biggest ferry company is to ban plastic straws from its ships following a plea from Glasgow schoolchildren.
Caledonian MacBrayne, which has a fleet of 34 ships, is also looking at replacing as many plastic products as possible.
Ocean Defenders from Sunnyside Primary School in Glasgow enlisted CalMac to their campaign to ban plastic straws.
The group of Primary 7 eco campaigners have been promoting their #NaeStrawAtAw campaign around the country and impressed the company’s new community board with their passion for conservation when they presented to them in Oban last week.
The 12-member board was set up last year to provide an independent community voice on issues facing their communities.
“When Sunnyside Ocean Defenders first got in contact with CalMac last year we knew we needed to hear more about their campaign,” said said CalMac’s Environmental Manager, Klare Chamberlain.
“The company is extremely concerned about marine litter and the blight it can have on the marine environment across the west coast. Their Ocean Defenders group provided both CalMac and the community board with an extremely informative presentation highlighting the dangers of single use plastics and provided us with samples of suitable alternatives which we could adopt.
“We have been working with our suppliers over the last year or so to identify alternatives to single-use plastics and with our waste contractors to ensure than any alternatives can be suitably managed. I am delighted that CalMac Ferries can support #NaeStrawAtAw and ban plastic straws on-board and look forward to spreading word of the campaign across the communities we serve.
“Our procedures are also changing so that straws are only available on request. All other sources of single use plastics on board are also under review and we hope to be able to announce further changes over the coming months.”