Having been the first country to ban lightweight plastic bags, and then the first to ban plastic cups and plates (in 2016), France’s plastic ban will now include straws, coffee stirrers, cotton buds, and other single-use items that use plastic in their design. As part of the country’s Energy Transition for Green Growth Act, the ban took effect on 1 January 2020. France’s goal by 2025 is for all plastic in the country to be 100% recycled.
In 2018, the European Parliament approved a single-use plastic ban from 2021. The ban includes plates, cutlery, straws and cotton buds, oxo-plastics and certain polystyrenes.
And in India the government has pledged to ban all single-use plastics by 2022, which the UN described as “unprecedented”.
Costa Rica is also aiming to eradicate single-use plastic by 2021. In the summer of 2018, the country announced its aims to become completely carbon-neutral by 2021 – if it achieves this, it will be one of the first carbon-free countries in the world.
Meanwhile, Indonesian island Bali has enacted a ban on single-use plastics. Experts have estimated that 80% of the trash on Bali’s beaches originated from the island itself. Indonesia last year launched a national action plan, pledging up to US$1bn to cut ocean waste by 70% by 2025.
And if you find yourself on the island of Capri, you had better not have a plastic fork in your bag! A new ruling, effective from May 2019, states that single-use plastics are not allowed on the island unless they are made from biodegradable plastic. They can neither be sold by local shopkeepers, nor brought onto the island by visitors.
Over in China, there are also plans to rein in single-use plastic, with non-degradable bags banned by 2022 and single-use straws barred from restaurants by the end of 2020 (retailers have not given out free plastic bags since 2008). The country produced 60 million tons of plastic waste in 2010, compared with the US’s 38 million tons; in 2017, it banned the import of foreign plastic waste amid growing concern about the unsustainable amount of waste being sent to landfill and heightened awareness that China needs to lose its “one of the world’s biggest polluters” tag.
Even in the Everest region, Nepalese authorities have banned single-use plastics in order to tackle the waste left by climbers. They recently removed 11 tons of rubbish from Mount Everest.
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Having been the first country to ban lightweight plastic bags, and then the first to ban plastic cups and plates (in 2016), France’s plastic ban will now include straws, coffee stirrers, cotton buds, and other single-use items that use plastic in their design. As part of the country’s Energy Transition for Green Growth Act, the ban took effect on 1 January 2020. France’s goal by 2025 is for all plastic in the country to be 100% recycled.
In 2018, the European Parliament approved a single-use plastic ban from 2021. The ban includes plates, cutlery, straws and cotton buds, oxo-plastics and certain polystyrenes.
And in India the government has pledged to ban all single-use plastics by 2022, which the UN described as “unprecedented”.
Costa Rica is also aiming to eradicate single-use plastic by 2021. In the summer of 2018, the country announced its aims to become completely carbon-neutral by 2021 – if it achieves this, it will be one of the first carbon-free countries in the world.
Meanwhile, Indonesian island Bali has enacted a ban on single-use plastics. Experts have estimated that 80% of the trash on Bali’s beaches originated from the island itself. Indonesia last year launched a national action plan, pledging up to US$1bn to cut ocean waste by 70% by 2025.
And if you find yourself on the island of Capri, you had better not have a plastic fork in your bag! A new ruling, effective from May 2019, states that single-use plastics are not allowed on the island unless they are made from biodegradable plastic. They can neither be sold by local shopkeepers, nor brought onto the island by visitors.
Over in China, there are also plans to rein in single-use plastic, with non-degradable bags banned by 2022 and single-use straws barred from restaurants by the end of 2020 (retailers have not given out free plastic bags since 2008). The country produced 60 million tons of plastic waste in 2010, compared with the US’s 38 million tons; in 2017, it banned the import of foreign plastic waste amid growing concern about the unsustainable amount of waste being sent to landfill and heightened awareness that China needs to lose its “one of the world’s biggest polluters” tag.
Even in the Everest region, Nepalese authorities have banned single-use plastics in order to tackle the waste left by climbers. They recently removed 11 tons of rubbish from Mount Everest.