The Single Use Plastic Ban – What Your Business Must Know

Single use plastic cutlery, plates, and cups are cheap and convenient, but their disposal is problematic. They don’t break down and can leach chemicals, adding to pollution if they end up in landfill. Even though most single use plastics are recyclable only 10% of single use plastic items are recycled.

To reduce this negative environmental impact the UK government is introducing a single use plastic ban in England from October 2023. This follows on from the existing plastic ban on microbeads in 2018 and single use plastic straws in 2020. And there’s already a single use plastic ban in Scotland that came into force in June 2022.

If your business in England relies on single use plastic products in any form you should be adapting to comply with the ban. To help your organisation prepare for the ban on single use plastic we’ve answered the most important questions about it and provided some useful tips to remove single use plastics from your operations.

Single use plastics – also known as disposable plastics – are items made from plastic designed to be used once and then thrown away. They’re made from a variety of fossil fuel-based chemicals (petrochemicals) depending on the product. Common examples of single use plastics include disposable plastic cutlery, plates, and straws.

Up to 50% of plastic products are single use plastics around the world. This reflects the disposable lifestyle and culture that’s developed globally, and many industries rely on. While many single use plastics are recyclable lots end up in general waste, landfill, and as litter due to their throwaway nature.

There are a few exemptions to the England single use plastics ban for specific items:

• Single use plastic plates, bowls, and trays – you can still supply these if it’s to another business or they’re pre-supplied packaging (pre-filled or filled at the point of sale). Examples include a pre-filled salad bowl packaged in a tray, a plate filled at a takeaway counter, or a tray to deliver food.
• Single use polystyrene food and drinks containers – food or drink can still be supplied in polystyrene containers when it requires additional preparation before consumption. For example, this could mean adding water, microwaving, or toasting.

There are no exemptions for supplying single use plastic cutlery and balloon sticks.

The single use plastic ban in the UK is being introduced across different dates for England, Scotland, and Wales:

• The single use plastic ban in Scotland has been in action since 1 June 2022.
• In England, the single use plastics ban comes into force from 1 October 2023.
• The single use plastic ban in Wales is being introduced in two phases. Most single use plastics will be banned from Autumn 2023, but the following items won’t be banned until 2024 – single-use plastic carrier bags, polystyrene lids for cups and takeaway food containers, and oxo-degradable plastic products.

The main reason the UK government is banning single use plastics is to boost efforts to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042. Currently, in England, around 2.7 billion single-use cutlery items (mostly plastic) and 721 million single-use plates are thrown away every year. This ban aims to wipe out such waste.

Plastic cutlery was in the top 15 most littered items in the UK by count in 2020. And according to the European Commission, the 10 most common single-use plastic products found on European beaches account for 70% of all marine litter in the EU (alongside fishing gear).

Such a big change and the potential penalties for breaching the plastic ban in the UK means businesses need to be ready for the new rules. Companies in every industry must be compliant with the rules, whether you only provide a few disposable plastic spoons to customers in an ice cream café or regularly use polystyrene food containers.

There are a few things your business should do to prepare for the ban on single use plastic properly:

• Check your stock for disposable products – do an inventory of all single use plastic products your business still has and plan to use, sell, or donate them all before 1 October 2023.
• Find alternatives to single use plastic items – explore reusable, compostable, and biodegradable alternative solutions to the single use plastic items you currently use. Speak to your existing suppliers to see if they can offer an alternative and search for sustainable suppliers.
• Assess the costs – switching to different products and new suppliers will affect the costs to your business. Analyse how this fits with your budget and whether it’s the best choice.
• Consider the consumer – ensure whatever alternatives you source are still of a high quality that will impact your consumers as little as possible. Especially as most single use plastic items are used for food and drink, you’ll need to ensure the alternatives you use still meet all relevant food safety standards.