Calls to boycott Chupa Chup lollies over plastic sticks

There are calls for a nationwide boycott on Chupa Chup lollipops.

It's because the confectionary company hasn't acted on a promise to ditch plastic sticks made in 2012.

And sustainability advocates say they're clogging up beaches, gutters and waterways.

Four billion Chupa Chups are eaten every year, that's a lot of candy and plastic.

Environmentalist Breanna Ward says she finds at least five Chupa Chup sticks every time she does a beach clean-up.  

In 2012 amidst online pressure, the confectionary company said it'd look to replace its plastic stick with something sustainable.

Only, it hasn't.

There's been lots of people still posting on their Facebook page, there's always a generic comment from them saying something like, we've reduced our plastic waste by something like this percentage through very vague ways and nothing to hold them accountable

Ward wants to up the ante and is calling for a nationwide boycott.  

Environmental groups are rallying behind the idea.

Camden Howitt says lollipop sticks make up around 2 and a half percent of what his group finds at beach cleanups.

"The greatest threat to the environment is the belief that someone else will save it for us, so individuals can act and act now and it's really just saying no to the things you can buy and not buy," Howitt says.

Chupa Chups say these plastic sticks are recyclable and they're made of polypropylene.  

But that requires you to actually put it in the right bin.

"I want a future and I want everyone else to have a future and these companies.. they're the ones who have the money to come up with solutions," Ward says.  

She adds consumers should be sour with companies that don't do their bit

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