COYA has announced that it will no longer use plastic drinking straws at any of its venues around the world to reduce global consumption and inspire other outlets to do the same. COYA is the first global restaurant brand to eradicate plastic straws in each of its venue in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and London.

Plastic straws are just the first step in the brand’s eco-move. COYA has committed to stop using plastic stirrers and paper napkins, as well as implementing refillable juice bottles rather than single-use plastic bottles.

Single-use plastic is a particularly nasty form of plastic. These items have a shockingly short lifespan, normally used once and then discarded. Like other plastics, they never biodegrade and take hundreds of years to break down. Plastic straws are one such single-use item and are ending up in our world’s oceans by the thousands. Straws also contain BPA and cannot be recycled.

Cedric Toussaint, Director of Operations, COYA Dubai said, “Reports have shown that plastic straws are a clear example of completely unnecessary single-use plastic that is used for an average of just 20 minutes then discarded. In 2017, COYA Worldwide purchased a total of 300,000 straws. As part of COYA’s global corporate sustainability efforts we have made the decision to no longer use plastic drinking straws, stirrers, juice bottles as well as paper napkins in any of our venues. We hope our commitment will encourage our peers to help reduce plastic pollution, and perhaps inspire our guests to do the same too.”