Takeaways will no longer be able to hand out plastic cutlery and plates when a new ban comes into effect in England.
Single-use items like plastic forks, plates and polystyrene trays will join plastic straws, stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds, which were banned in 2020. The latest ban is set to start from October.
The move follows a long consultation, which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will publish later today, but the Government have confirmed that the ban will be gong ahead. The move follows similar laws in Scotland and Wales.
Government figures suggest that 1.1 billion single-use plates and more than four billion pieces of plastic cutlery are used in England every year. This equates to each person in England using an average of 18 plastic plates and 37 items of plastic cutlery every year, according to Defra, while just 10% of those are recycled. Plastic waste often does not decompose and can last in landfill for many years.
The ban will initially concentrate on takeaway food and drink and the latest measure does not cover supermarkets or shops, although the Government said it would address those in other ways, leading for calls for the measures to go further by environmental campaigners.
Megan Randles, political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, told the BBC that the organisation welcomed the ban but further action was needed. "We're dealing with a plastic flood, and this is like reaching for a mop instead of turning off the tap," she said, calling on the Government to deliver a "meaningful" strategy on how to reduce plastic use, which would also include stringent targets and "a proper reuse and refill scheme".
Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said the move would help protect the environment for future generations. "I am determined to drive forward action to tackle this issue head on. We've already taken major steps in recent years - but we know there is more to do, and we have again listened to the public's calls," she said. "This new ban will have a huge impact to stop the pollution of billions of pieces of plastics and help to protect the natural environment for future generations."
It is not known whether single-serve sachets of ketchup, mayonnaise and other condiments will be banned under the new measures, as rumoured last year. When the consultation was launched, it was said that plastic sachets are particularly problematical because of their small size and heavy contamination with food. This makes them difficult to segregate and clean, meaning they are unlikely to be recycled.
The Government is also currently considering whether other measures are needed to target commonly littered items such as wet wipes and tobacco filters.
Under new legislation, it is expected that the ban will be enforced through civil sanctions – but with the possibility of repeated breaches ending up in a criminal offence.
Although the British Takeaway Campaign and the Federation of Small Businesses agreed that single-use plastics had to be reduced, they stressed that businesses needed time to find alternatives.
The Government is also said to be considering adding to changes on plastic bags, which increased to 10p from 5p in 2021 and now applies to every retailer, from giant supermarket chains to corner shops. Plastic bag usage has fallen by 95% since supermarkets began having to charge extra for them in 2015.
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