IRELAND (From news reports) -- A packaging company is creating 100 jobs in Antrim, Ireland with a new facility which will make paper straws for McDonalds.

Huhtamaki is investing £12m in the facility at Kilbegs Business Park.

Single-use plastic items like straws are facing a ban across Europe, prompting companies to use new products.

McDonalds is introducing paper straws to more than 1,300 restaurants in the UK and Ireland this year.

On Tuesday, Environment Secretary Michael Gove confirmed restrictions on plastic straws, drinks stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds in England from April 2020.

Most straws are made from plastics such as polypropylene and polystyrene, which, unless recycled, take hundreds of years to decompose.

Many end up in landfill and the oceans.