The Corinthia Palace Hotel in Attard has this week banned plastic straws from its establishment, ahead of an upcoming EU law to ban single-use plastics. 

“As a group, we strive to look after the environment, buying local produce to reduce our carbon footprint and having an active eco-programme,” the hotel’s general manager David Woodward said. “Following discussions that arose in the EU reflecting straws’ usage and the damage they cause the environment, we have decided that as from today, we will be a straw-free property.”

The Corinthia Palace Hotel said it uses around 40,000 plastic straws a year and will now substitute them with paper straws with a wax cover, available only on request. 

European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans last month announced that all plastic must be recyclable or reusable by 2030 and that single-use plastics like plastic straws must be banned. 

“If children knew what the effects are of using single-use plastic straws for drinking sodas, or whatever, they might reconsider and use paper straws or no straws at all,” he told The Guardian. “We are going to choke on plastic if we don’t do anything about this. How many millions of straws do we use every day across Europe? I would have people not use plastic straws any more. It only took me once to explain to my children. And now… they go looking for paper straws, or don’t use straws at all.”

Should more Maltese establishments follow suit? 

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]