Single use plastics ban UK

In January the UK Government announced that it will be introducing a ban on the supply of a range of single use plastics in England. The ban will begin in October 2023. Items such as plastic knives, forks and spoons are the main categories along with polystyrene trays.

The Report from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs published 14^th Jan 2023.  Read the Defra Report here.

In short the Government will introduce legislation to ban the supply of single-use plastic in England from October 2023. This will include

• Single use Plates, trays and Bowls
• cutlery
• balloon sticks
• expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers – including cups.

The important part of the DEFRA report is

“single-use plastic cutlery” means any item that is—

(a) designed or intended to be used as, or in the same way as, a knife, fork, spoon or chopstick,

(b) made wholly or partly from plastic, and

(c) not designed or intended to be re-used;

“single-use plastic plate, tray or bowl” means any item that is—

(a) designed or intended to be used as a plate, tray or bowl,

(b) made wholly or partly from plastic, and

(c) not designed or intended to be re-used;

“single-use polystyrene cup” means a cup, with or without a lid or cover, that is—

(a) made wholly or partly from expanded or foamed extruded polystyrene, and

(b) not designed or intended to be re-used;

“single-use polystyrene food or drink container” means a receptacle such as a box, with or without a lid or cover, that is—

(a) made wholly or partly from expanded or foamed extruded polystyrene,

(b) not designed or intended to be re-used; and

(c) used to contain food or drink that is ready to be consumed without further preparation.

In response the manufacturers have coined the phrase

Multi-Use Plastic – Not Banned from October

The industry has deemed the most important keywords in this document to be :-

“not designed or intended to be re-used”.

Therefore, plastic containers that are over 30% recycled are classed as multi use plastic and hence are exempt from this legislation.

Also, containers that have the recycle symbol of or  are classed as Multi Use Plastic and are exempt from this legislation.

Over the past few years, we have actively been changing our plastics to only those that have a high recycle content and are fully recyclable.

Multi use plastics on our website- Not banned from October

Look for the following symbols on the container or our website

 PET, RPET or APET easily recycled and can be made with recycled content

 Polypropylene PP easily recycled and can be re used many times

Examples of

Strong Lightweight and shatterproof.

Examples of

Microwave and Freezer Safe

Disclaimer

We have read and interpreted Defra’s legislation and in consultation with our manufacturers written this blog to help our customers make decisions on future packaging needs.  This document is not intended to act as legal advice and we urge you to use the link above to read the document for yourself and draw your own conclusions.