3 October 2023 – On Sunday the new single-use plastic ban has come into force in England. Under the new law, certain types of single-use plastic are no longer allowed to be sold.
The world has a huge problem with plastic pollution. Most plastics aren’t biodegradable and remain in the environment for hundreds of years.
Single-use plastic is the biggest polluter. According to research cited by the government, 2.7 billion items of plastic are used in England every year. The majority is single-use plastic.
Only 10% of this plastic is recycled, the rest ends up in landfill or in our environment. This ban, which follows a similar ban introduced in Scotland last year, will help to remove some of this plastic pollution.
Wales will introduce a similar single-use plastic ban later this month.
What Sinle-Use Plastic Has Been Banned?
The government says in its announcement that this new ban on certain single-use plastics is part of their wider strategy to eliminate plastic waste by 2042.
Back in 2020, England banned the sale of single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds. The new ban that came into force on Sunday adds a few more items that are no longer allowed to be sold.
Eariler legislation banned single-use plastic carrier bags from being given out for free and a charge for these bags has been introduced. The government has also introduced a plastic packaging tax back in 2022 on plastic packaging that doesn’t contain at least 30% recycled plastic.
This tax is applicable to any plastic packaging produced in the UK, as well as any that is imported to the UK from overseas.
From 1 October 2023 onwards, single-use cutlery, plates, balloon sticks and polystyrene food trays and cups are no longer allowed to be sold.
What isn’t covered in the ban are plastic containers, trays and wraps. These can be continued to be used by takeaways and other hospitality businesses.
There is another exemption to this ban. Retailers, such as supermarkets, can continue to use single-use plastic plates, bowls and trays when selling pre-packaged food.
The reason given by the government for this exemption from the new ban on single-use plastic is that it considers these plastic items “packaging”. As such, these plastic items will be part of separate legislation.
While campaigners welcomed the ban as another step forward, most thought that it’s not enough.
Legislating token bans on a few single-use plastic items every few years… [is] completely inadequate to the scale of the problem.
Anna Diski, Plastics Campaigner for Greenpeace UK
What campaigners call for is a serious strategy that will reduce the amount of plastic that is produced.
Not All Businesses Were Prepared For The New Single-Use Plastic Ban
Meanwhile, the BBC has reported that many businesses didn’t know that this new ban was coming in on 1 October.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that back in September the British Independent Retail Association warned that not all affected firms were aware of or prepared for the ban to take effect.
It looks like the government’s communication plan wasn’t as effective as they thought, which could be costly for many small businesses.
The local authorities will carry out inspections and any firm that still sells the banned single-use plastic items could be fined. Another issue identified by some businesses in the food hospitality sector is the lack of available alternatives to the banned single-use plastic items, as reported by the BBC.
Not only are sustainable alternatives not widely available, they are also more expensive than the plastic items that are now banned.
95% of the public are in favour of the ban of single-use plastics, according to the government’s consultation results. However, it will only work if the government doesn’t just introduce a ban, but also ensures that businesses can get the sustainable alternatives easily and at a sustainable price.
Our Opinion
Any single-use plastic ban is great and as such we welcome the new ban in England. However, in order to make a real difference, we need more than just banning a handful of items every two years or so.
While this government seems to understand that plastic pollution is a huge problem, their strategy to tackle the problem isn’t really fit for purpose.
Rather than just banning random items, we need a plan to phase out plastic from most aspects of our lives and at the same time invest in the development of plastic-free alternatives.
Given that sustainable alternatives for items prohibited under the new single-use plastic ban are not widely available and more expensive, the government doesn’t seem to have this thought through properly.
The financial burden of this ban lies on the small businesses affected by it, without any support in place to make the transition viable for them.
But seen as Rishi Sunak has recently watered down other climate policies, this shouldn’t be a big surprise. The climate crisis seems to be just a political tool for this government to win votes, rather than a serious issue that needs addressing.
