The company says that customers are annoyed by the paper straw and wants an exemption from the EU ban on single-use plastic items. But experts believe the campaign is hopeless.
The drinking bag manufacturer Capri-Sun has started an online petition for a return to plastic straws. The company wants to collect a total of one million signatures on the change.org platform – in order to pass these on to the EU Commission. Capri-Sun boss Roland Weening told the Swiss “Sonntagszeitung” around two weeks ago that he wanted to work towards an exemption from the EU for the ban on single-use plastic straws.
Adriana Neligan, an expert in circular economy at the German Economic Institute in Cologne, said, however: “I do not believe that there will be an exemption for any company.” Andreas Hermann from the Öko-Institut in Darmstadt said that the directive serves to protect the environment, plastic drinking straws are banned – “and the directive does not provide for any exceptions.”
Criticism from environmentalist
Environmentalists were extremely critical of Capri-Sun’s plans. “The product itself is a disposable disaster, it becomes garbage straight away – that no longer fits in with our times, when politicians and people around the world are committed to a sustainable future,” said Viola Wohlgemuth from the Exit Plastic alliance. “Reintroducing the plastic straw would be a step back into the last century.”
Capri-Sun, which produces in Eppelheim near Heidelberg, has been using paper straws since 2021. Weening had said the company was working on switching back to plastic straws in Switzerland and neighboring countries. Customers are annoyed that the paper straw currently used is harder to insert, becomes soft and leads to a paper taste when drinking. The company is headquartered in Zug in Switzerland – where the EU ban does not apply.
Expert does not expect the EU ban to be reversed
Expert Neligan said she also does not expect the EU ban on single-use plastic items from 2021 to be reversed. However, Neligan was also critical of paper straws, some of which barely survive a single use. “The question is: how often can I use a product? And that of course improves the ecological balance.” For example, recycled plastic bags perform better in terms of ecological balance than paper bags.
According to a spokeswoman, Capri-Sun is currently looking into the possibility of allowing consumers to throw the drinking bag and straw – both made of polypropylene – together in the recyclable plastic waste. Polypropylene is a plastic. The drinking bag in the classic 200-milliliter version currently also contains aluminum. In the next step, the drinking bag will only be made of polypropylene.
Source: Stern
