The sale of several single-use plastic items including plates and cutlery could be banned in Northern Ireland – but not in the rest of the UK – from 1 January 2022 or sooner. This is because under the Northern Ireland Protocol, Northern Ireland must transpose “certain articles” of the Single-Use Plastic (SUP) Directive relating to placing single-use plastic goods on the market.
But because the SUP Directive was not transposed into UK law before the end of the Brexit transitional period last year the government in Westminster is not required to implement the directive’s requirements. While the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has bans in place for some items, such as stirrers and cotton buds, it does not go as far as the SUP Directive at the moment. A ban on expanded polystyrene food containers and cups has not been introduced and nor has one on single-use plastic plates and cutlery. This means different restrictions could be in place across the UK on either side of the Irish Sea.
A spokesperson for Defra said alternative approaches to the Directive were under consideration to deliver “the same or better overall outcome” in the rest of the UK. But, they made no pledge to introduce a ban which would see a level of consistency achieved in time, instead saying the Environment Bill “will make it easier” for ministers to do so if they wished. The EU’s SUP Directive states that by 3 July 2021, member states have to ban the sale of single-use cotton bud sticks, cutlery, plates, straws, stirrers, and sticks for balloons. Northern Ireland have an extended deadline of January 2022. The ban will also apply to cups, food and beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene, and on all products made of oxo-degradable plastic.
Source: Let’s Recycle
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