From the 1st of October a new UK ban on single use plastics came into force which is designed to reduce the scourge of plastic litter in our environment. The new restrictions affect retailers, takeaways, food vendors and the hospitality industry and bans the use of single packaging such as plastic cutlery, polystyrene cups or plastic containers, plates or bowls.
Obviously, this is a great move to help reduce such plastic in our world as the UK government states that of some 2.7 billon items of plastic cutlery and 721 million single use plates, only about 10% gets recycled. Incredibly, if the 2.7 billon items of cutlery were lined up, they would go around the world more than eight and a half times!
The UK has lead the way in many such initiatives to rid us of single use plastics which have included having to pay for shopping bags (which reduced the use of plastic bags by 98%), bans on plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds. All good news for our rivers and oceans where sadly so much of this rubbish ends up.
The success of the carrier bag charge builds on the government’s action to turn the tide on plastic waste. In 2018 the government announced one of the world’s toughest bans on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products.
Helen Bird, Head of Material Systems at WRAP, said about the UK ban on single use plastics:
"Single-use plastics dominate our world and have even become embedded into the planet itself. This ban is an important moment in tackling the scourge of plastic pollution.
Since 2018, WRAP has worked with businesses under The UK Plastics Pact to eliminate all unnecessary and unrecyclable plastic packaging. Since then, 620 million single use plastic items have been removed from shops. But we must go further, including on plastic packaging on most fruit and vegetables – and help save shoppers money by allowing people to buy what they need."
Naturally, we at Pamper Moose are delighted to see this progressive new UK ban on single use plastics as wanting to rid our bathroom of such items was our original inspiration.
If you would like to read more on this change in the law, then you can read the government update here or read more about our ethos here.
Here’s to a cleaner world!