‘We Can’t Recycle Our Way Out of This Problem’: Ben & Jerry’s Bans Single-Use Plastics

Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s announced major efforts on Monday to quickly curb its use of single-use plastics . By April of this year, its 600-plus Scoop Shops around the world will only offer wooden spoons, rather than plastic ones. Paper straws will also only be available upon request. All together, the move is expected to prevent 2.5 million plastic straws and 30 million plastic spoons from being handed out each year, Jenna Evans, Ben & Jerry’s Global Sustainability Manager, said in a press release . “We’re not going to recycle our way out of this problem,” she said. “We, and the rest of the world, need to get out of single-use plastic.” Evans explained that if all the plastic spoons used by Ben & Jerry’s U.S. shops were placed end to end, they’d stretch from Burlington, Vermont to Jacksonville, Florida. The Vermont-based company, which has a long track record of political and environmental activism , also announced today it will phase out clear plastic cups, plastic-lined cups and plastic lids by the end of 2020. Although its tubs of ice cream have been made of Forest Stewardship Council Certified paperboard since 2009, they are coated with polyethylene […]

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