Our daily feature celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns from the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
So what’s so exciting about a photo of three cans of pre-mixed spirits, each with a straw inside?
The answer is that these are no ordinary straws. Diageo has paired its premix range with environmentally friendly, flavoured and, yes, edible straws. It’s all part of the drinks giant’s commitment to phasing out the use of all plastic straws and stirrers around the world.
This summer, strawberry, chocolate, lemon and lime flavoured straws will accompany selected pre-mixed varieties including:
- Pimm’s & Lemonade with a strawberry straw
- Gordon’s Gin & Schweppes Tonic with a lime straw
- Baileys & Iced Coffee Latte with a chocolate-flavoured straw
- Captain Morgan Spiced Rum & Cola with a lemon straw
- Smirnoff & Cranberry a citrus injection with a lime straw
It’s good to see an increasing momentum behind the elimination of plastic straws across the drinks, food & beverage and travel retail sectors. Diageo is, of course, active in all three spheres and as an industry leader its thought (and practical) leadership is vital.
In recent weeks we’ve reported several other important initiatives in this regard.
- Food & beverage concessionaire HMSHost has pledged to eliminate plastic straws at its dining locations across North America by 2020. Around 100 million straws were used at the company’s locations in North America last year.
- Dublin Airport restaurateur Marqette, FAB winner of Airport Food Hall of the Year 2018, is replacing one-use plastic drinking straws with a compostable paper alternative.
- Bacardi is partnering with marine sustainability organisation Lonely Whale in the battle to rid the environment of single-use plastic. The company’s goal is to eliminate one billion single-use plastic straws by 2020, a pledge underpinned by the ambitious The Future Doesn’t Suck campaign.
- Manchester Airport Head of Retail Mike Ward tells us that the majority of the airport’s outlets are now plastic straw free. “There are commitments from the final few to be straw free by the end of the year,” he adds.
Few business sectors are either as visible or as international as travel retail, let alone so linked to the environment.
Diageo commented: “Our commitment to phasing out the use of all plastic straws and stirrers, and the edible straws partnership, build on almost a decade-long commitment to making our packaging more sustainable – principally through increasing recycled content, reducing packaging weight and increasing recyclability.”
The company recently launched ambitious new plastics targets for 2025 and beyond as part of a broader commitment to minimising the environmental impact of its business.
Can travel retail do more? Absolutely. Take a walk through the beauty, confectionery and consumer technology departments of most travel retailers. The amount of plastic packaging (often unnecessary, unwieldy and difficult to open) is alarming. Think of all that plastic piling up in landfills. It’s a disturbing thought.
Few business sectors are either as visible or as international as travel retail, let alone so linked to the environment. It’s time to step up the pace of change and it shouldn’t need any kind of consumer straw poll to tell us how urgent the need is.
