McDonald`s Scraps Plastic Straws in U.K. and Ireland.
QUEST: All seems so ordinary and so obvious. Think about it, how many times have you sort of gone through this process and well, the rest is just obvious. Now, McDonald`s in the U.K. is getting rid of the plastic straws at its restaurants in Britain and Ireland and it`s starting in September. Instead, it`s going to use environmentally friendly paper straws. The fast-food chain with a number of firms that are looking to reduce their plastic waste. Craig Leeson is the director of the film "Plastic Ocean" joins us now, good to see you sir and thank you for taking the time. This is a victory for you.</s>CRAIG LEESON, FILM DIRECTOR: It is a victory and any recognition by a corporation or a government or even an individual, last thing, will use plastic is something that we don`t need that is damaging to the environment, that causes human health problems is the victory. And so for McDonald`s to admit this, sends a message to other corporations that this kind of product shouldn`t be tolerated anymore, and certainly the next generation is being left with the problem of dealing with this. And they don`t want to deal with brands that are involved with single use of plastic.</s>QUEST: What`s fascinating though is the way in which this is very much being taken off in the U.K. largely due many campaigns and things like the evening standard newspaper and the like. But when the issue of plastic straws were raised by McDonald`s shareholders in the U.S., they voted to continue with them. So there`s still opposition to getting rid of the plastic straw.</s>LEESON: We`ve seen opposition amongst many companies. I mean, Malibu in California bans single use of plastic items, there`s one company that has resisted that and is paying the penalty for doing so, which is Starbucks. And they feel that their clients want plastic straws whereas everybody else within that community thinks that that`s not acceptable. How acceptable that remains to their clients will be seen because consumers are starting to spend more --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>LEESON: Wisely, they`re making smart choices with their dollars. And as we`ve seen, single-use of plastic items are causing such damage to the environment that they don`t want to be a part of that. So corporations that are continuing to perpetuate the single use of plastic items are engaging in what we call brand damage.</s>QUEST: And that brand damage, for example, when does it end? I`ve got a plastic straw in my hand, but I`ve also got a plastic lid on the cup. Now, arguably, that is also single-use plastic, but we definitely need the lid to prevent the hot drink or whatever from spilling. So it`s -- I guess, if it was as simple as saying get rid of all single use plastic, everybody would get on with it. But there`s a complexity to the issue --</s>LEESON: Yes --</s>QUEST: That doesn`t -- are you, go on, go for it.</s>LEESON: Yes, but Richard, you don`t need that cup in the first place. You can take your own steel container to the coffee shop and have them put the coffee in your steel container which you can re-use time and time again. The -- in most coffee shops, even the paper cup which you think is paper, most instances, it contains 27 percent plastic, which is a line that --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>LEESON: Presents -- prevents the cup from going soggy because of the liquid contained within it. But you can solve that --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>LEESON: Problem, you can stop that waste going into the stream by taking your own cup to the store -- and in many cases, we`re seeing companies that are enlightened by the problem, actually offering discounts to customers --</s>QUEST: Right --</s>LEESON: Who bring their own keepy(ph) as they`re called.</s>QUEST: Good to see you, sir, thank you. You got up early in the morning to join us from Hong Kong and we`re very appreciative, thank you very much sir, have a good weekend.</s>LEESON: Thank you.</s>QUEST: We will take our profitable moment after the break.