Café de Coral ditches plastic straws in all stores

Café de Coral has stopped offering plastic straws across all branches from 1 January 2019 onwards including special drinks unless requested by customers. The fast food chain has been supporting the ‘No Straw Campaign’ initiated by Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong (OPCFHK) since June 2018, and has raised the frequency from monthly to weekly, aiming at gradually changing customers' habit of using plastic straws. Café de Coral have also completely replaced the plastic stirrers and tea spoons with wooden sticks for hot drinks. Plastic knives have also been taken out from take-away cutlery packs. Other moves to help protect the environment include the latest research on combining a plastic fork and a spoon into one utensil. The options of ‘Bring your own meal box’, ‘Bring your own cup’ and ‘No straw’ are available in the smart kiosks and mobile food ordering apps. Café de Coral has expected the amount of single-use plastics distributed will be reduced by 50% with all these measures. "We have deep concern for the issue of phasing out single-use plastics. Understanding the importance of public education, we will reinforce the promotion of “Say No to Straws” with advertisements and in-store promotional materials," said Peter Lo, CEO of Café de Coral Group. "We proactively cooperate with suppliers to explore alternative materials which fit food safety requirements without inducing adverse impact on the environment. While keeping the reduction of single-use plastics usage as the short-term goal, we aim at terminating single-use plastic cutlery usage completely in long run," he added.