The EU plans to enforce strict measures to check plastic pollution. One of the first actions will be to ban plastic straws and disposable cutlery like spoons, knives, forks, and plates. These damage the environment and add to the growing menace of pollution that finally end up in the ocean and endanger the health of the planet.
According to Fortune, the European Commission will introduce a ban on single-use plastic items and it wants society to promote alternatives made from more sustainable materials. The scope of the ban will cover plastic straws and cutlery items made of plastic.
In the opinion of Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, EU can lead the way to create non-plastic products that can gain global acceptance and pave the way for business to grow.
Single-use plastic must go
Thanks to the initiatives taken by environmentalists, there is a growing awareness among people about the perils of single-use plastics. Countries the world over are trying to tackle the problem in an arbitrary method but the EU wants to lay down specific guidelines for its member countries. That will ensure that the focus is not lost.
The EU is the world’s second-largest consumer market The United States is the first and it has banned such items in Seattle and Malibu. The U.K. is also tackling plastic pollution in its own way.
However, the EU wants to ensure that all its members are tuned to the same frequency and can set national targets. That way, the impact will be more positive, especially on the environment.
Actions taken by Britain
A recent report in the Independent UK indicates that considering the implications of single-use plastic items to the environment, Britain has already decided to ban such items.
More than 40 major businesses have pledged to gradually do away with such material from packaging. A few major food and non-food brands account for nearly 80 percent of the items in UK’s supermarkets. Proper and attractive packaging are necessary to market these products and if the material used is made from reusable, recyclable or biodegradable material, it will make a huge difference to the final outcome.
That should be the goal.
Actions on similar lines are expected to have a positive effect on countering the menace that threatens to destroy the ecological balance and puts marine life at risk.
Incidentally, tackling plastic pollution is already on the agenda of Prime Minister Theresa May’s long-term environment plan. It was launched earlier this year, and one of the government measures to tackle this problem is the introduction of a bottle deposit scheme and a ban on microbeads.
