The UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that England will ban single-use plastic products from being sold and served by companies by the end the year. announced on Saturday. The government will start enforcing this legislation in October 2023. The ban will also apply to single-use trays, certain polystyrene cups, and food containers. However it will not apply to take-out meals purchased in supermarkets. The government plans to target these items with a separate scheme that encourages manufacturers and encourages them to meet higher recycling standards.
According to the Department of the Environment, English consumers consume approximately 2.7 billion pieces of single-use cutlery annually. Only about 10% of that is recycled. The ministry stated that 95 percent of those it consulted before today’s announcement favored the ban. Environment Minister Therese COffey said, “We have listened and banned new single-useplastics will continue our vital work in protecting the environment for generations to follow.”
Per AFPSimilar legislation has been passed in Wales and Scotland. It’s worth noting that England already prohibits the sale single-use products like cotton swabs and straws. The Environment Ministry is also looking at measures to target “problematic” plastics. To make it easy for consumers to dispose of these items properly, the government could ban wet pads and tobacco filters.
The ban on disposable plates is part of a larger campaign by governments around world to reduce single-use plastics production and consumption. The United Nations started work on a dossier this March. The first global treaty on plastic pollution. The agreement will not be completed before 2024 at the latest, but it could be one the most significant efforts to curb global warming since the 2015 Paris Agreement.
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