The United Kingdom is set to ban many types of single-use plastics, including plastic plates and cutlery.
U.K. Environmental Secretary Therese Coffey told the Daily Mail that the ban will include plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, certain types of polystyrene cups, and food containers. The move aims to cut down on plastic pollution given the long time it takes to decompose.
“A plastic fork can take 200 years to decompose — that is two centuries in landfill or polluting our oceans,” she said. “This new ban will have a huge impact to stop the pollution of billions of pieces of plastic and help to protect the natural environment for future generations.”
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Coffey said that the ban will be announced sometime next week.
Steve Hyndside, the policy manager at British nonprofit group City to Sea, supports the policy. He stressed to NPR how there are alternatives on the market for all the items in the new ban.
The ban is just the latest crackdown on plastics in the U.K. In October 2020, the government announced a ban on plastic straws, stirrers, and cotton buds. Prior to the ban, the government estimated that U.K. citizens used 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers, and 1.8 billion plastic-stemmed cotton buds every year.
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Exceptions were made for disabled people — they will still be able to request plastic straws at restaurants.
