Single-use plastic items such as cutlery, plates and trays are to be banned in England in a bid to reduce pollution, the UK government has confirmed.
Figures suggest that every year England uses about 1.1bn single-use plates and 4.25bn pieces of such cutlery, only 10% of which are recycled after being used.
Plastic items relating to takeaway food and drink, including food containers and cutlery, make up the largest share of litter in the world’s oceans, according to research.
Now the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, is set to ban a suite of single-use plastic items, confirming reports made last month.
The move follows a consultation on the issue by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) that ran from November 2021 to February 2022.
“A plastic fork can take 200 years to decompose, that is two centuries in landfill or polluting our oceans,” said Coffey.
A ban could have ramifications for the UK’s plastic industry which according to the British Plastics Federation (BPF) had annual sales of over £27bn in 2020 and employed 182,000 people making it the third largest employer in the UK manufacturing sector.
Globally the plastics market was estimated to be valued at $593,000 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 3.7% from 2022 to 2030.