Ban on single use plastic

The news broke yesterday that the European Parliament has backed a vote to ban single use plastics. The pressure for leading governments and organisations to act on the terrible states of our oceans has been mounting since Sir David Attenborough’s powerful Blue Planet II highlighted the monstrous masses of plastic clogging our oceans, killing sea life and causing serious detriment to the future of our planet. Talking on BBC Newsnight Sir David Attenborough said that “there is a groundswell, internationally, of recognising what we’re doing to the planet and the disaster that awaits unless we do something”. This ban is the direct response to the international recognition Sir Attenborough talks of.

The ban will mean the following products will be banned outright, plates, cutlery, straws, balloon sticks or cotton buds. These are being targeted as non-plastic alternatives are easy to come by and shockingly these products make up over 70% of marine litter.

MEPs added to this list of plastics banned from the EU market from 2021: products made of oxo-degradable plastics, such as bags or packaging and fast-food containers made of expanded polystyrene. That’s not the end of the ambition, The consumption of several other items, for which no alternative exists, will have to be reduced by member states by least 25% by 2025. This includes single-use burger boxes, sandwich boxes or food containers for fruits, vegetables, desserts or ice creams.

MEPs agreed that reduction measures should also cover waste from tobacco products, in particular cigarette filters containing plastic. It would have to be reduced by 50% by 2025 and 80% by 2030.

One cigarette butt can pollute between 500 and 1000 litres of water, and thrown on the roadway, it can take up to twelve years to disintegrate. They are the second most littered single-use plastic items.

Watch the full BBC Newsnight interview below.  Which was published three weeks before the ban was announced but he addresses questions about the future of our planet as expertly as you’d expect from the great man.

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