Have Europe really agreed to ban all single use plastics in the next couple of years?

 

 

It seems too good to be true, FOSH investigate whats really going on

 

The headline says ‘The Parliament of the European Union has voted to ban single use plastics across the whole union', the ban is expected to come into force in the next 2 years, effectively 2021. Wow, this is really good news but what does it mean, well our understanding is plastic straws, plates, cutlery, trays and other disposable ‘single use’ plastics are to be subject to a EUROPE WIDE BAN and this is in draft and is very possible will be made into law.

The EU governments have already signalled support for the draft law so their final approval scheduled for this summer 2019 is more a formality, can this really be happening? If this goes ahead it is the single biggest move we have seen yet towards reducing single use plastics and were 100% behind this fantastic move.

 So, what does this mean? Well if this comes into effect our day to day life IS GOING TO CHANGE, no doubt of that, lets look at where the main changes will take effect.

 The UK alone uses approximately 7 million single use coffee cups EVERY DAY, back in 2018 the BBC reported that 99.75% of these were not recycled see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43739043 which is simply unsustainable for the long term. One coffee chain recently banned single use cups from its stores and suffered a £250,000 loss in profits but they were  buoyant about their position and said they were proud to be leading the way, well done the Boston Tea Party chain see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-47629820. We are all going to need to step up our view on this issue, apparently people are still not prepared to give up the wasteful ways and as you can see voting with their feet and simply buying elsewhere. When this ban comes into place its going to be a dealbreaker, no more plastic lined cups, its reusable or sit in with china, or the modern day equivalent, we cannot wait.

Lets think about water, looks like buying bottled water must be challenged by this, maybe it's going to stop, for sure a lot of pressure will be on those manufacturers who surely can see what there doing but follow profits over common sense. Will people be able to refill their own water bottles pretty much everywhere, it is already happening as Costa, Starbucks  and Pret all recently offered free tap water to passers-by under initiatives to reduce the use of single use plastic bottles see https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coffee-shops-costa-starbucks-and-pret-to-offer-free-water-in-war-on-waste-ndzjf7pqf. I think were already well on the road to this happening  today we can see a ground shift in opinion, people want change, there taking it into their own hands a lot of the time and this is simply government making a stance, amazing.

So here again its a change but lets be honest refilling a water bottle is both common sense and a great way to save money, why wouldn’t we? Statistics suggest 7.7 billion plastic bottles of water are used throughout the UK every year, if we put a £1.00 price for each of us to get a feel of how much this is costing its a solid £120 per year, over 10 years its £1200! 

Some areas will improve our lives emotionally such as plastic plates, I’ve never really liked them, suffered them I guess, so this will be a move in the right direction for my everyday world. Plastic straws are easily changed and again won’t affect us, maybe we will go back to fish and chips wrapped in newspaper? Quant! (interested see our last blog article https://foshbottle.com/blogs/fosh/cod-and-chips-do-you-want-salt-and-vinegar-on-that-sir)

The UK are looking at radical car laws that are directly aimed at putting ‘effectively zero emission’ cars on our roads by 2040, with Diesel there are plans to BAN all sales of diesel cars by as early as 2032, these are massive initiatives that will make a difference. We can see car manufacturers waking up to partial and fully battery powered vehicles more and more every day and we see this as cautiously optimistic, I guess everything has its footprint but were happy to buy into this change.

Lets hope this stance becomes a reality, I thought recently we won't be around to see the results of our work but its happening so quickly maybe we will!

 

FOSH have been pushing re-useable water bottles and coffee cups since we opened our doors, check out our range at www.foshbottle.com and get involved.