Plastic waste is one of the great environmental scourges of our time. In the UK alone, the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls.
The Environment Secretary has today confirmed a ban on plastic straws, drinks stirrers, and plastic stemmed cotton buds in England, following overwhelming public support for the move.
These new rules send a clear message that in the EU we are taking responsibility for the waste we generate… This is an important milestone in fighting plastic pollution, transitioning to a circular economy, and achieving the aims of the European Green Deal.
We should not be allowing plastic. What we should do is phase it out.
If we continue like this, by 2050, we will have more plastic in the ocean than fish.
It is by working with these companies, with policy makers, with cities, with innovation to design bio-benign products – that we will tackle this. There isn’t a company out there which wants to see its logo in the ocean or in a river
Around 99% of the feedstock for plastics is fossil fuels, so we are looking at the same companies, like Exxon and Shell, that have helped create the climate crisis. There is a deep and pervasive relationship between oil and gas companies and plastics.
