British Takeaway Campaign comments on PM’s environment strategy

The British Takeaway Campaign, an umbrella group representing those involved in the supply and preparation of the nation’s favourite foods, today (Thursday) commented on Theresa May’s environment strategy, including a consultation on taxes / charges on single use plastics

Ibrahim Dogus, Chair of the British Takeaway Campaign, said:

“While we agree that more needs to be done to reduce the use of plastics, a tax isn’t the right answer, as it will lead to increased costs for consumers and hurt the many small and independent businesses that make up the UK’s takeaway sector.

“Most takeaways are responsible when it comes to dealing with litter and the sector is already taking steps to encourage consumers to reduce, reuse and recycle. With takeaways reliant on having a cost effective solution to keeping customers’ food hot, an additional plastic tax will harm the prospects of an industry which contributes £9.4bn to the economy.

“The British Takeaway Campaign will be consulting our members, such as the Foodservice Packaging Association, to explore workable alternative solutions which do not increase costs for small businesses or lead to higher prices for customers.”

The British Takeaway Campaign is Spearheaded by Just Eat, the BTC’s members include: Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers; Bangladesh Caterers Association; British Retail and Kebab Awards; CurryLife Magazine; Foodservice Packaging Association; K10 restaurants; National Federation of Fish Friers; Nationwide Caterers Association; Night Time Industries Association; QuickBite; UK Bangladesh Catalysts of Commerce and Industry, SeeWoo, and in collaboration with PAPA. Earlier this year, the BTC released independent research, which revealed the takeaway sector supports 231,000 jobs and takeaways themselves directly contributed £4.5bn in gross value added (GVA) contributions to UK GDP in 2016, rising to £9.4 billion when factoring in the multiplier effect of supply-chain and employee spending – equivalent to 0.5% of GDP.