Brussels: Plastic cutlery, foam take-out food containers and plastic cotton buds are among the single-use products to be banned across EU member states by 2021 under a plan that was provisionally agreed in Brussels on Wednesday.
The deal foresees a ban that targets the 10 disposable plastic products that most often wash up on European shores. “We have a situation where one year you can bring your fish home in a plastic bag, and the next year you are bringing that bag home in a fish,” EU Maritime Affairs Commissioner Karmenu Vella said in a statement.
“We have taken a big stride towards reducing the amount of single-use plastic items in our economy, our ocean and ultimately our bodies,” Vella said. Under the provisional agreement struck by the European Parliament and EU member states, plastic plates, straws, drink stirrers and sticks for balloons will also be banned from the market — but not balloons themselves.
Other plastic products will see design and label requirements and waste management obligations for producers to limit their use. Wet wipes packaging, for example, will need to inform consumers of the presence of plastic in the wipes and the harm done to the environment if not thrown away in a bin.
Producers of plastic-containing tobacco filters — the second most littered single-use plastic items in the EU — will be subject to an extended producer responsibility scheme.
The deal is “a milestone in our efforts to reduce plastic litter,” Austrian minister for sustainability and tourism, Elisabeth Koestinger, wrote on Twitter. Austria currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
The measures still require the full approval of EU member states and lawmakers, a move that is expected to be a formality. This will pave the way for the deal to take effect in two years’ time. The ban on plastics is part of EU efforts to the transition to a more circular economy where resources are used in a more sustainable way.
In addition to avoiding the emission of millions of tonnes of CO2 equivalent, EU measures against single-use plastic products and bags will avoid 22 billion euros ($25 billion) worth of environmental damage by 2030, according to the commission.
Plastic waste is a particular problem for the world’s oceans, as its slow decomposition rate means that traces are often found in marine species such as sea turtles, whales and birds, as well as in the seafood that ends up in the human food chain. — dpa
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