By Samantha Osborne, Business lawyer at nationwide regulation agency Freeths
With the ban on single use plastics now right here, companies should be sure that they perceive the laws and take steps to mitigate the affect the ban might need on their day-to-day actions.
On this article, we recap the adjustments which are coming into power, which take impact from October 2023, remind companies of what they need to be doing now, and take into account the alternatives that the adjustments may current.
The ban applies to the next single-use classes:
- Plates, bowls and trays except you might be supplying them to a different enterprise or the objects are packaging (pre-filled or crammed on the level of sale). Examples of this embrace:
- a pre-filled salad bowl or prepared meal packaged in a tray
- a plate crammed on the counter of a takeaway
- a tray used to ship meals
- Cutlery and balloon sticks (no exemptions)
- Polystyrene foods and drinks containers except additional preparation of the meals is required earlier than it may be consumed.
So, how are companies getting ready for the ban?
Breaches of those laws can lead to fines for the enterprise proprietor so now’s the time to be in control on the principles, utilizing up previous inventory and guaranteeing that the substitute inventory meets the authorized necessities.
While we recognise the potential monetary implications of getting to supply new suppliers, there’s a potential upside for these companies with inexperienced aspirations, which is that this ban will be a possibility to scope out potential new suppliers for his or her long-term sustainability credentials. If what you are promoting is within the lucky place of getting just a few choices to think about on the subject of suppliers, why not be choosy and search for the suppliers which are doing extra to be sustainable?
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The one-use plastics ban follows the Producer Accountability Obligations (Packaging Waste) Rules 2007, that are anticipated to be prolonged, and the introduction of the Plastic Packaging Tax in April 2022. All of those have the ‘polluter pays’ idea at their core however is it sufficient? Single-use plastic objects akin to plastic forks or polystyrene cups are sometimes changed by objects akin to picket forks and take-away cups that can’t be recycled and are nonetheless single-use objects.
If the end result of the ban on single-use plastics is prone to be an identical quantity of waste within the type of different single-use objects then maybe there needs to be an equal and concurrent deal with tackling shopper complacency round using single-use objects and inspiring shoppers to embrace reusable objects as a substitute. All of us need to do what we are able to to cut back our affect on the atmosphere, however shopper behaviour is unlikely to vary except motivated by incentives akin to rewards or reductions for utilizing their very own reusable packaging. If we wish shoppers to vary their behaviours, we’ve got to make the sustainable selection the simple selection.
