Bioplastic cutlery and tea stirrers are not environmental
Campaigners for the environment claims that bioplastic cutlery and items like tea stirrers are just as harmful to the environment as their single use counterparts.
They have been exerting pressure upon the environment secretary Therese Coffey to also issue a ban on such biodegradable throwaway cutlery. Ms Coffey is expected to announce a ban soon in December 2022 on single use disposable plastic throwaway cutlery.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plans-unveiled-to-ban-single-use-plastics
But campaigners want her to go much further and include the bioplastic variants including polystyrene cups as well, as this type currently seems to be exempt from the plans.
https://greenworld.org.uk/article/forks-sake-whole-year-inaction
Single use plastic has been banned by the EU ever since July 2021, and the EU lays down specific guidance that bioplastic should be treated the same as normal plastic types.
Campaign groups petition
Steven Hynd is a policy manager at City to Sea, an environmental campaign group. He has made calls for the environment secretary to clarify her stance on bioplastics reiterating that he thinks they should also be banned.
He explained: “It’s incredibly alarming to read through that these important, and frankly very minimum, environmental standards might be watered down to exempt ‘biodegradable’ single use alternatives.
Many of these bioplastics are incredibly environmentally damaging and won’t break down in the natural environment and so will do nothing to tackle the plight of plastic pollution.”
More than 118,000 members of the public backed the petition that City to Sea had created to ban such single use items. Steve Hynd was happy a ban may soon be in place:
“We’ve waited years longer than other countries, but i trust them when they now promise that their plan to ban these items will be released in the coming weeks.”
Scotland and Wales have already beaten England to the finishing post when it comes to banning single use plastics including the biodegradable variants.
Defra issued a statement to outline their stance, and their intended actions for the future:
“We are determined to go further and faster to reduce, reuse and recycle more of our resources in order to transform our waste industry and deliver in our commitments in the ambitious 25 year environment plan. Cutting our reliance on single use plastics is crucial.”
“Having already banned single use straws, stirrers and cotton buds and ended the sale of billions of single use bags with our plastic bag charge, we will be responding soon to a consultation on further bans of plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks and expanded and extruded polystyrene cups.”
source: dailymail
