Selfridges stops selling fizzy drinks in single-use plastic bottles

The department store wishes to encourage other companies to remove all drinks in throwaway plastic from their offices and stores in a bid to stamp out single-use plastic.

The move will come into effect this week and will prevent the sale of the equivalent of six tonnes of plastic.

Alannah Weston, deputy chairman of Selfridges Group said, “Our customers expect us to be responsible and our values underpin this requirement. We have supported the #OneLess campaign from 2016 which, as a result, has seen the Mayor promise to improve access to drinking water across London.

“We are seeing a huge shift in people’s attitudes to single-use plastic water bottles, and now, carbonated drinks. As a city, we still have a long way to go but we can encourage environmentally conscious behaviour from individuals, to manufacturers, and retailers. At Selfridges we want to continue to support that change and give our customers the choice to buy better.”

John Sauven, Greenpeace UK’s executive director said, “One of the world’s best-known retailers is sending a clear message to major drinks manufacturers that they need to reduce their use of plastic bottles. Selfridges has been highlighting marine conservation issues for nearly a decade. It is continuing to confront the crisis in our oceans by dealing with the problem of plastics at its source – banning the single-use plastic drinks bottles produced by carbonated soft drinks companies. This is a great move by Selfridges.

“There’s a raft of measures concerning product design and waste management which can also help to solve the plastic problem. But producing less plastic is essential. Coca-Cola alone churns out 127 billion plastic bottles a year, a quarter of the global total. Hopefully, Selfridges’ bold move will make soft drink giants have a rethink about their reliance on single-use plastic bottles.”