LONDON, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A call was made by the London Assembly Thursday for a ban on single-use, non-recyclable hot drink cups.

The elected assembly also wants to see a tax on single use plastic water bottles, saying on average every Londoner buys around 175 bottles every year.

The assembly wants London Mayor Sadiq Khan to lobby the British government to introduce measures to control the use of plastic bottles and non-recyclable hot drink cups.

Assembly member Leonie Cooper AM, who put forward the measure, said: "With plastic polluting our rivers and oceans, causing terrible consequences for wildlife and our environment, we need urgent action."

Cooper said the government needs to step up and do more, not least with the introduction of a tax on all single-use plastics and a ban on non-recyclable coffee cups.

"I'd also like to see the mayor lobby the government to designate London as a pilot city for their proposed Deposit Return Scheme, something there is a real appetite for here in the capital," she added.

The call won unanimous support from assembly members at a city hall meeting.

A recent study found that many fish in London's River Thames have ingested plastic fibers, as much as by 75 percent in the case of one fish species.

In Britain about 7 million disposable coffee cups are used every day, adding up to 2.5 billion every year, with very few of them recycled. Enditem

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