Subway to phase out plastic bags in Australia
Australia’s largest quick service restaurant Subway has announced that it will be eliminating the use of plastic bags from its stores Australia wide.
Implementing more environmentally friendly packaging is a priority for the business according to Senior Corporate Social Responsibility Manager for Subway, Ben Miles.
As a result of the move, Subway will be removing 76 tonnes of plastic from its waste stream annually in Australia.
“The changes have made a big impact on the presentation of our food, but most importantly worked to significantly reduce our environmental footprint,” Miles said.
The plastic bags are expected to be completely phased out from Subway stores by the end of November.
“We serve more than 1.8 million subs every week. The elimination of plastic bags at that king of scale, will make a big difference,” Miles said.
New baskets for dine-in customers
The purge of plastic bags is in addition to the use of sandwich baskets for dine-in customers as opposed to having a sandwich wrapped.
Subway’s move comes after the use of plastic bags in Australia came under scrutiny after the ABC documentary, ‘War on Waste.’
The move away from plastic bags at Subway comes after two of Australia’s biggest retailers, Coles and Woolworths decided to phase out the use of the environmentally bothersome bags by the end of 2018.
Paper wrap set to become more environmentally economical
Subway restaurants will also have a new smaller paper, ‘Sub-Wrap’ introduced into stores to reduce the chain’s waste footprint.
The new paper has been designed for six-inch subs and are made from at least 40 per cent recycled fibre.
Previously, the smaller sandwiches were wrapped using the paper for a foot-long sub.
“We estimate we will eliminate approximately 395 tonnes of paper and 175 tonnes of plastic overall,” Miles said.
Subway are the world’s largest fast food restaurant chain, with more than 44,000 locations in more than 100 countries.
In Australia there are more than 1,400 Subway restaurants currently in operation, with the Australian headquarters in Brisbane.
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