The government of England has planned to ban Single-use plastic plates and cutlery, and polystyrene cups following its goal of reducing the environmental pollution. Ministers believe that this step would decrease the amount of litter and cut the plastic waste in oceans.
A public consultation would be released into the public this year and the ban would be in place in a couple of years, wrote Damian Carrington in The Guardian. The step was welcomed by activists however they asserted that the progress on it is “snail-paced” as these items along with others have already been banned by the EU in July. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland also have set plans in motion to ban single-use plastic cutlery.
Will McCallum, at Greenpeace UK, said: “Banning throwaway plastic items like plates and cutlery is a welcome move, but the UK government is simply playing catch up with the EU. After years of talking about being a global leader in this field, the UK government has managed to crack down on a grand total of four single-use plastic items and microplastics. This snail-paced, piecemeal approach isn’t leadership.”
Carrington asserted that an average person uses 18 throwaway plastic plates and 37 single-use knives, forks, and spoons each year, according to ministers.
This high amount of plastic litter means it kills more than a million birds and 100,000 sea mammals and turtles every year around the world.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) stated that in total 1.1 billion single-use plates and 4.3bn single-use items of cutlery are used every year in England, reported the Independent.
Environment secretary, George Eustice said, “We’ve all seen the damage that plastic does to our environment. It is right that we put in place measures that will tackle the plastic carelessly strewn across our parks and green spaces and washed up on beaches.”
“We have made progress to turn the tide on plastic, banning the supply of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds, while our carrier bag charge has cut sales by 95% in the main supermarkets. Now we are looking to go a step further as we build back greener. The
se plans will help us stamp out the unnecessary use of plastics that wreak havoc with our natural environment,” he added.
Defra asserted that the latest plan would build upon the government’s commitment to restrict all avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042.
Jo Morley, head of campaigns at City to Sea, affirmed that the environmental charity has greeted the news with pleasure.
She said, “This is a much-needed move, that we as campaigners have been calling for, along with thousands of our supporters and members of the public. We need now to take a leading role in banning unnecessary single-use plastics to see real benefits for the nation’s and the world’s wildlife.”
The government is planning to recover the full cost of recycling and disposing of their packaging from the companies and has consulted on introducing the scheme, called “extended producer responsibility” on a phased basis from 2023.
Moreover, it would also be focused that a uniform plan of recycling is executed in the whole country as people are often confused with different rules in different places.
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