Plastic Straws, Cutlery, Cotton Buds etc, Banned By EU Directive.

Cotton buds, plastic plates and straws made for single use plastic are now banned in Ireland from yesterday
The European Union’s Single Use Plastic (SUP) Directive means that many common items, manufactured as single use plastics, will now be totally banned from the Irish market place.

Readers will be aware that ‘single-use plastic products’ are items only used once, or indeed for a very short period of time, before eventually being dumped; with the 10 most commonly located single-use plastic items representing 85% of all marine litter, located within our seas and waterways.

Cotton bud sticks, cutlery, plastic plates, cocktail stirrers, chopsticks, plastic straws, shopping bags, expanded polystyrene single use food and beverage containers, and all oxo-degradable plastic products are on this list of products, which, from yesterday, are now banned from being placed for sale within the Irish market place.

The objective of this welcome EU Directive, quote “is to prevent and reduce the impact of certain plastic products on the environment, in particular the aquatic environment, and on human health, as well as to promote the transition to a circular economy, with innovative and sustainable business models, products and materials”.

Continued in the Irish government’s “Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy”; [roadmap published in September last year]; Ireland commits to increase plastic recycling rates to 50% by 2025, and at long last to introduce a deposit return scheme which will accommodate plastic bottles and cans; and, by 2030, ensure that all packaging on the Irish market is reusable or recyclable.