BOSSES at the BBC have announced a new three-step plan to remove single-use plastic from their operations by 2020.
Staff and visitors across all BBC sites use around 2 million plastic cups each year and general director, Tony Hall, says he was 'shocked' to see the harm caused by single-use plastic waste.
The plan is to have all plastic containers removed from canteens by 2019, starting with a pilot in Salford this month, where they will also trial a coffee cup recycling scheme.
Radio 5 Live presenter, Rachel Burden, addressed the single-use plastic problem on Twitter, sharing a photo of over 400 plastic spoons at BBC Millbank.
She said: "Someone needs to have a word with the bbc bosses in Millbank about their plastic consumption."
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Someone needs to have a word with the bbc bosses in Millbank about their plastic consumption @maryannehobbs 😱 pic.twitter.com/QW8ly5UTle
— Rachel Burden (@rachelburden) February 2, 2018
Tony Hall said: "Like millions of people watching Blue Planet II, I was shocked to see the avoidable waste and harm created by single-use plastic.
"We all need to do our bit to tackle this problem, and I want the BBC to lead the way.
"Scrapping throwaway plastic cups and cutlery is the first step, and with our plan I hope we can have a BBC free of single-use plastic altogether.
"We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and in the last Charter period, we met stretching targets including reducing our carbon footprint by a third and the volume of waste per person sent to landfill by 90 per cent."
A spokesman for the BBC said: "Discussions will take place over the coming months with current suppliers and services to assess when further changes can be introduced.
"Any new contracts which come up for tender will also include the requirement to cut single-use plastic."
