Plastic straws, cotton buds and stirrers are to be banned under plans announced by the government today (22 October).
A ban on the distribution and sale of the items is to be introduced between October 2019 and October 2020, subject to views received in a six-week consultation.
Restaurants, pub and bars supplying straws on request will be exempt under the proposals, as will pharmacies selling them for medical use.
Announcing the plans, environment secretary Michael Gove said action was needed to reduce the estimated 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million stirrers and 1.8 billion cotton buds used in England annually.
“I commend retailers, bars and restaurants that have already committed to removing plastic straws and stirrers,” he said. “But we recognise we need to do more. Today we step up our efforts to turn the tide on plastic pollution and ensure we leave our environment in a better state than we inherited it.”
Greenpeace UK’s political adviser Sam Chetan-Welsh called for producers to take more responsibility. “Ministers are doing the sensible thing by looking to ban single-use plastic items that can be easily replaced with better alternatives or that we can simply do without. But this should be just the start,” he said.
“If we are to protect our oceans from the scourge of plastic, the flow of waste needs to be cut off at the tap. And that means the companies producing and selling all this packaging must take responsibility for it and cut down the amount of plastic ending up in our shopping baskets.”
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Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, also welcomed the plans, saying many pubs and restaurants had already stopped supplying plastic straws following an industry summit on packaging earlier this year.
“We wholeheartedly welcome this consultation on an issue of vital importance and one which hospitality has already taken significant action,” she said.
“Since UKHospitality’s Unpack the Future of Hospitality summit in the spring, thousands of pubs clubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK have changed their straws and stirrers to biodegradables, or adopted policies that cut or eliminate their use in their venues.
“The government is seeking views on how we can cut plastic waste and we look forward to continued engagement to play a part in achieving that goal.”
The plans are the latest in a series of government proposals to curb single-use plastic waste, following the introduction of the 5p carrier bag charge in 2015.
In March this year, Gove said new laws to support a bottle deposit return scheme would be brought in by 2020, while a separate DRS scheme is on the way in Scotland following a consultation which ended last month.
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