SINGAPORE: Yakult Singapore will no longer provide straws with its probiotic cultured milk drinks, joining a stream of companies who have pledged recently to ditch plastic, single-use straws.

In a Facebook annoucement, Yakult Singapore said that its Yakult and Yakult Ace Light products will no longer come with straws from end-December, as part of efforts to contribute to environmental protection and sustainability.



"Yakult can be consumed directly from the bottle by removing the foil cap," the company said in the post on Thursday (Dec 27).

"We value your unvarying support in our effort to help protect the environment and hope you will continue your healthy journey with Yakult."





Several companies have announced plans to eliminate plastic straws, including KFC, Starbucks, Burger King and Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).

In June this year, KFC announced that it would no longer provide plastic caps and straws for dine-in customers at its 84 outlets in Singapore, a move that will see a reduction of 17.8 metric tonnes of single-use plastics in a year.

The next month, global coffee giant Starbucks also said it would ditch all plastic straws at its stores around the world by 2020.

In October, Burger King pledged to remove plastic straws and lids for their cold drinks for dine-in customers at its 42 outlets in Singapore.

Since Oct 1, dining establishments and five themed attractions across RWS have stopped providing customers with plastic straws, a move that will save more than three million, or 1.2 tonnes of, plastic straws a year, the integrated resort said.