On Wednesday, the Royal British Legion (RBL) announced that it was to ditch its plastic poppies, a design which it donned since the 1980s, for a paper poppy created from renewable sources including half from offcuts from the production of takeaway coffee cups. The move has been praised by chair of the Failsworth RBL branch Paul Wadsworth, who reopened the branch earlier this year after more than four decades – at which point punters wore fabric poppies, designed in the 1960s. “We’re still selling the plastic ones because we’ve got them in stock but most of the poppies are now paper. Since the first poppy appeal in 1921 there have been more than 10 designs. Mr Wadsworth and his team estimate that they have around 5,000 poppies in stock and have just finished dropping them off at pubs and shops across Failsworth.

Source: The Times October 30, 2023 13:03 UTC