My kids love a Subway, as do many millions of people worldwide but recently my 8-year-old daughter pointed out that they use a fresh pair of gloves for every sandwich they prepare. I could not believe this could be true and was sure she had it wrong. She didn't!

I have since discovered that Subway sells around 5,300 sandwiches every minute which is about 320,000 sandwiches every hour or about 7.6 million subs per day. Multiply this by two for a pair of gloves and you have 15.2 million gloves disposed of every single day. This is outrageous and totally unnecessary.  It seems Subway shops have a hygiene policy which states their "artists"  (sandwich makers) MUST change their gloves for every new sub made and sometimes even when switching between meat and vegetables on the same sub!!

I contacted Subway after I discovered this to ask if they had some program for recycling or in fact used biodegradable gloves. It was clear that they do not and their responses regarding environmental responsibility were vague and non-committal:

"our artists do change their gloves between each sandwich for food safety-related reasons. We want to ensure our guests are protected from start to finish of their meal with us. We appreciate this feedback as we are always looking for ways to continue to grow our sustainable efforts." 

When I tried to point one obvious way was to stop using gloves, or at the very least recycle them or use biodegradable ones, I received the below response:

"This is certainly our aim for the near future. Our ambition is to reduce environmental impact and preserve our planet's health and we are doing what we can to make strides in this area"

Would it really be so difficult to provide in-store recycling or use compostable gloves? Or to use serving tongs or other hygienic methods for sandwich preparation. This has to be stopped and quickly. 

Please sign and share our petition, so we can get thousands, even millions of signatures sent to the CEO of Subway to let him know that we do not think this is acceptable and it must stop now! Not in a year after they have thrown away a further 5.5 BILLION GLOVES. Or in two years after 10 BILLION  MORE GLOVES will be in our landfill and seas. BUT NOW!

We love their sandwiches, but we do not want them to cost the earth!! Thank you for your support.