by Stefano Secondino (ANSA) - ROME, 03 JUL - The EU now bans a series of disposable plastic objects, the most polluting, including plates, cutlery and straws.
Today, July 3, the European SUP (Single Use Plastic) Directive comes into force, approved in 2019 and implemented by Italy with national law last April. The SUP bans disposable plastic objects most found on the beaches: plates and cutlery, straws, cotton buds, cocktail stirrers, balloon sticks, polystyrene food and drink containers. Stores will still be able to sell them while stocks last, then they will be banned.
The Italian law that transposed the directive excludes disposable plates and cutlery in compostable bioplastics from the ban, and the government asks the EU to include the same distinction in the guidelines for the application of the Directive. Italy is also asking that the ban does not concern plasticized paper, covered with a plastic film, which represents less than 10% of the weight. Brussels accepted the Italian findings, and undertook to modify the guidelines in the required sense.
But while the European Union takes a first, timid step to eliminate disposable plastics, a group of 14 scientists from different countries published in the journal Science an appeal for an international agreement that even bans virgin plastic from 2040. From that date, according to the researchers from Germany, Australia, USA, Switzerland, New Zealand, Finland and Rwanda, the world should stop producing new plastic, and use only recycled one. (HANDLE).
