Views: 7 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2020-07-13 Origin: Site
The UK is legislating to ban single-use plastic cutlery
Recently, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK announced that in order to effectively reduce plastic waste, the UK will phase out single-use plastic cutlery, foam plastic cups, and food and beverage containers, among others. This initiative has been made public to the entire society and will be open for public consultation for 12 weeks before implementation.
According to statistics, the average annual plastic waste emissions per capita in the UK reach 99 kilograms, ranking second globally, only behind the United States. The UK uses 110 million disposable tableware items and 4.25 billion cutlery pieces annually, most of which are made from plastics, with only 10% being recycled. Additionally, the country consumes 2.5 billion single-use coffee cups each year, many of which are not recycled. As a result, the British government is studying how to transition these products to sustainable alternatives without causing inconvenience to consumers.
Previously, in an effort to curb plastic pollution, the UK has implemented a charge for plastic bags, banned the use of plastic microbeads in washing products, and prohibited the market circulation of single-use plastic straws, stirrers, and cotton buds, among other measures. In April 2022, the UK will also introduce a tax on packaging products containing less than 30% recycled plastic material.
The French government recently announced its plan to ban the sale of fruit and vegetables in plastic packaging starting from January 1, 2022, as part of its “Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law,”aiming to create a circular economy by gradually phasing out single-use plastics by 2040.
As a next step in the“Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law,” plastic packaging for fruits and vegetables weighing less than 1.5 kilograms will be prohibited. This will come into effect on January 1, 2022, but the government has stated that the law will be gradually implemented until June 30, 2026, giving manufacturers time to change their packaging solutions. The French government also allows for a six-month grace period for the processing of packaging inventory.
Furthermore, it is expected that the “Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law” will be further amended in 2022, including the removal of plastic tea and herbal tea bags from supermarket shelves in France. The country’s food service industry will also be affected: in 2022, the distribution of plastic meal toys with meals will be banned, and starting from 2023, restaurants will be required to replace single-use cutlery with reusable alternatives for meals and drinks served on-site.
As global countries increasingly define their goals for plastic bans and restrictions, plastic products will gradually fade from people’s sight, which also opens up new markets for paper products. More and more paper alternatives to plastic are gaining market favor due to their environmental friendliness and low carbon footprint.
UK retail supermarkets eliminate plastic bags and change product packaging
From a SeafoodMedia report on April 14, customers visiting the UK supermarket chain Morrisons can now only purchase one paper bag per visit, as the store has ceased providing plastic bags. Morrisons has become the first retail store in the UK to completely stop offering plastic bags, including environmentally friendly bags.
Reusable paper bags have been on sale at Morrisons for some time, and after a trial in 8 stores, the supermarket has decided that this type of paper bag will be the only one available to customers moving forward. The adoption of this bag is expected to save 3,200 tons of plastic annually. Other supermarkets are also working to reduce their reliance on plastic bags and packaging.
Morrisons Supermarket: The first supermarket to completely ban plastic bags, with customers able to purchase a paper bag for 30 pence. In addition to paper bags, there are other reusable options available, such as string bags, jute bags, cotton bags, and reusable woven bags, priced between 75 pence and £2.50, or customers can make their own shopping bags.
Morrisons has committed to reducing brand plastic packaging by 50% by 2025 and will only use plastic bags that are 100% recyclable, reusable, or biodegradable. The company has also pledged that by 2025, an average of 30% of plastic packaging will be recycled.
Morrisons will also completely eliminate plastic packaging for fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers, asparagus, and rhubarb. Other plastic rules include not stocking plastic cotton swabs or boxed plastic straws, only storing paper straws; and meat labels have been changed from plastic to paper labels.
Tesco Supermarket: Tesco made a change to its plastic bag policy this week. The company had previously banned the use of plastic bags or tray liners during transportation but resumed their use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From April 19th, plastic bags will no longer be provided with online orders. The bagless delivery is seen as “playing an important role in reducing plastic consumption” due to environmental concerns.
In some cases, Tesco delivery drivers can bring goods inside customers’ homes, such as for the elderly, disabled, or vulnerable individuals, but the supermarket suggests that customers who prefer not to have their goods brought inside prepare their own bags or boxes to be filled at the door.
Last year, the Supermarket Chains announced a ban on shrink-wrapped multipack packaging for its own-brand canned foods, which will reduce plastic usage by 250 million tons annually.
Asda Supermarket: Asda is set to be the first to eliminate plastic use in fresh produce, saving over 100 million plastic items each year.
One key action the supermarket has taken is to cancel the 5 pence single-use shopping bag, making them the first to do so.
Aldi Supermarket: Aldi announced last month that it will implement a plastic ban across all its stores nationwide. In February, the company banned plastic egg packaging and announced that plastic straws would no longer be used in its own-brand drinks.
Instead, all these beverages are now equipped with paper straws, saving more than 100 tons of non-recyclable plastic annually. This ban will remove 70 million plastic straws from circulation, equivalent to over 100 tons of non-recyclable plastic each year.
Last year, Aldi scrapped plastic bags for fruit and vegetables, replacing them with a 25 pence reusable plastic bag made from recycled bottles.
Lidl Supermarket: Lidl became the first supermarket in the UK to introduce plastic-free fruit and vegetable bags in 2019.
The supermarket has also ceased using black plastic in its products and has set targets to reduce the plastic and packaging for its own-label products by 2025.
Sainsbury’s Supermarket: Sainsbury’s has also discontinued the use of plastic bags in its online deliveries and banned plastic straws in its own-brand drinks, which will reduce the total number of plastic straws in circulation by 18.5 million each year.
The supermarket has started using reusable plastic bags on fruit and vegetable shelves, and the plastic packaging of some products has been eliminated.
Plastic-free supermarkets in the UK and the Netherlands are operating normally
The Guardian in the UK has reported that supermarkets in the UK are one of the main sources of plastic pollution, generating nearly 1 million tons of plastic annually! Many environmentalists are dissatisfied with such behavior by supermarkets, leading to the emergence of plastic-free supermarkets in the UK.
The Thornton Budgens supermarket in the UK is one such plastic-free supermarket. Bread and meat are packaged in biodegradable paper, while fruits and vegetables are largely sold unpackaged. Although Thornton Budgens is not yet a 100% plastic-free supermarket, they have at least taken a step in the right direction. More supermarkets like this are set to appear, collectively making changes to reduce plastic pollution.
Not alone in this endeavor, Dutch supermarket operator Ekoplaza has officially opened its first “plastic-free shopping zone” this Wednesday. This plastic-free area is located in an Ekoplaza supermarket in Amsterdam and officially opened its doors at 11 am this Wednesday, offering over 700 plastic-free products, mainly including various fruits, vegetables, and meats, among other groceries. This marks the first plastic-free supermarket shopping zone in Europe.
Ekoplaza’s move is in response to a call from the anti-plastic environmental organization A Plastic Planet. Sian Sutherland, the co-founder of the organization, said, “This is a milestone in the fight against plastic pollution.”
Ekoplaza’s CEO, Erik Does, said, “We know that our customers have a strong aversion to the various forms of pollution caused by plastic. This plastic-free zone is an interesting experiment and also a suitable place to test various new environmentally friendly materials and technologies.”
The products in the shopping area have not completely abandoned packaging but instead use glass, paper, metal, and other new materials as alternatives, with prices on par with goods packaged in regular plastic. All products are labeled with the plastic-free tag introduced by A Plastic Planet. This label is mainly intended to allow consumers everywhere to quickly identify products that are not packaged in plastic.
Ekoplaza has indicated that it will roll out similar plastic-free shopping zones in all 74 of its supermarkets by the end of this year.
Sutherland said, “People typically consume the food and drinks they purchase quite quickly, so there is absolutely no need to use plastic, a material that persists for a long time, for packaging. These plastics are useful for only a few days but will continue to pollute the environment for decades to come.” He added that A Plastic Planet is in talks with major supermarkets in the UK, but none have committed to launching a plastic-free shopping zone like Ekoplaza.
An earlier survey by The Guardian revealed that supermarkets in the UK are one of the main sources of plastic pollution, producing over 1 million tons of plastic waste annually. However, major supermarket operators in the UK have refused to disclose the total amount of plastic packaging used, claiming that this information is “commercially sensitive.”
Currently, more than 70 countries worldwide have imposed restrictions on the use of plastic packaging, with the Netherlands being one of them.
A research report released last year found that since the mass production of plastic began in the 1950s, the world’s total plastic production has exceeded 8.3 billion tons, of which about 6.3 billion tons have been discarded, with only 9% being recycled and reused. Now, the additional plastic production in 2019 is 390 million tons. If le+ft uncontrolled, the global annual plastic production could reach 700 million tons by 2030. At that time, the amount of plastic in the oceans could outnumber all other forms of life, and these plastics, which cannot decompose naturally, will enter the human body through the food chain.
Amazon UK stops using single-use plastic bags
Recently, Amazon UK announced that it will no longer use single-use plastic bags in product packaging and will switch to recyclable paper delivery bags or cardboard envelopes for orders shipped from Amazon logistics centers.
Amazon has stated that it has stopped packaging products in single-use plastic delivery bags and envelopes within its UK distribution network. This includes goods sold by Amazon and third-party sales partners who fulfill their orders through Amazon (FBA).
Customers will now receive packages wrapped in flexible paper bags and cardboard envelopes, which are easier to recycle in UK household recycling, contain a higher percentage of recycled content, and reduce volume compared to shipping with corrugated boxes.
“We’ve changed our supply chain to enable us to eliminate single-use plastic shopping bags in the UK,” commented John Boumphrey, Amazon UK Country Manager. “Customers are already receiving more easily recyclable paper and cardboard, and we will continue to innovate and find ways to use more sustainable packaging methods.”
However, in a few cases, customers in the UK may still receive products packaged in plastic.
Although Amazon controls the packaging of goods that are shipped directly to customers from its own fulfillment centers, more than 50% of sales come from third-party sales partners, many of which are small and medium-sized businesses selling to Amazon customers through the Amazon Store.
When products are packaged in a single-use plastic bag provided by the manufacturer and the bag is suitable, Amazon will deliver the product to the customer in the manufacturer’s bag. This avoids adding unnecessary additional packaging.
Plastic preparation materials, such as bubble wrap, may still be used when necessary, for example, to protect fragile items like glass.
Under specific weather conditions, Amazon may require the addition of a single-use plastic bag to paper and cardboard packaging to protect orders left on customers’ doorstep from getting wet.
From boxes to flexible bags, Amazon is working to improve the sustainability of its packaging. The company has appropriately sized packaging to match products that use fewer materials and has increased the amount of recycled content in the production process. Since 2015, Amazon has reduced the weight of outbound packaging per shipment by more than 36% and eliminated over 1 million tons of packaging materials, equivalent to 2 billion shipping boxes.
Amazon produced 599 million pounds of plastic waste in 2020.
The UK officially announced a ban on single-use plastic products including plates, boxes, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks
The UK government is set to ban a range of single-use plastics including plates, boxes, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, and certain polystyrene cups and food containers. However, the ban will not apply to plastics found in supermarkets and stores, as the government hopes to address these issues separately. The ban is set to be officially announced on Saturday. In fact, some single-use plastic items, including straws, cotton buds, and stirrers, have already been banned since 2020. This new ban will target more specifically food packaging for takeaways, as well as beverage packaging in restaurants and coffee shops.
According to UK government data, more than 4 billion pieces of cutlery and over 1 billion single-use plastic plates are disposed of in the UK each year. On average, each person in the UK uses more than 18 single-use plastic plates and 37 pieces of plastic cutlery annually. Only 10% of these are recycled, with the rest being discarded or sent to landfill.
