Pubs will be permitted to carry on selling takeaway pints to help boost income after an intervention from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Licensed premises were given approval to serve customers through hatches when they were forced to close during lockdown restrictions in 2020.
Those laws were due to expire at the end of August but the decision has now been reversed after Rishi Sunak stepped in. “I’ve heard the British pub industry loud and clear – takeaway pints are a boost for their businesses and our economy,” he announced on social media. The decision, however, has reignited debate about related plastic waste.
Sian Sutherland, Co-Founder, A Plastic Planet & PlasticFree said: “We all want to see our local pub being supported through today’s economic hardship but there is an insidious downside to the takeaway pint, or should I say the plastic pint.”
She added: “Millions of those flimsy cups are used in the UK every year, ending up on the street or in a bin with the hope it will be recycled, but in reality, the toxic material will be thrown into a landfill or simply incinerated.”
Sutherland argues that, with natural alternatives such as paper available, the government should be doing more to usher in policy that is good for both business and the environment.
