A ban on a variety of plastic cups, cutlery and food containers will come into force in England this October.
Shops and restaurants will not be able to sell many single-use plastics, including Styrofoam packaging, so businesses are offering alternative biodegradable products such as paper cups or wooden cutlery.
The ban will not include plastic found in pre-packaged supermarket meals and follows similar moves in Scotland and Wales.
An estimated 2.7 billion single-use cutlery is used in England every year, most of which is plastic, but only 10% is recycled.
In July last year, a project launched by Greenpeace and Everyday Plastic found that UK households throw away almost 100 billion pieces of plastic each year.
Plastic pollution takes hundreds of years to break down, and millions of tons are dumped into the ocean every year, with fatal consequences for marine animals.
The government launched a public consultation, which found an overwhelming majority of people were in favor of banning plastic items, but the changes could hit the hospitality sector in particular, where costs are already spiraling with the inflation
Warning of “considerable difference” in prices
Edit Shahin is the manager of Cafe Bueno in Romford, East London.
“Absolutely every piece of stock, every item of food has gone up in price in the last year, so that [ban] It may seem like a small thing, but it’s not,” he said.
“We sell a lot of takeaways, plastic spoons and plastic cups, so it will make a considerable difference [in price].”
Cafe Bueno already has some aluminum foil trays for takeaway food, which Shahin says are more expensive than styrofoam containers and wants the government to lower the price of plastic alternatives for businesses.
“It’s understandable, they [the government] they are doing everything they can to help the environment,” he said.
“But there are thousands of businesses in the UK, mainly takeaways, that use plastic cups, plastic takeaway containers, so it’s going to affect the whole of the UK, not just us. It’s just hurting the small businesses”.
Shahin also worries that it will be difficult to find suitable non-plastic materials for some drinks they serve, such as smoothies, which could leak through a paper cup.
“We listened to the public”
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey says the ban builds on previous policy changes.
He said: “We have banned microbiota, restricted the use of straws, stirrers and cotton buds and our carrier bag charge has successfully reduced sales by over 97% in major supermarkets.
“We all know the absolutely devastating impacts that plastic can have on our environment and wildlife.
“We have listened to the public and these new bans on single-use plastics will continue our vital work to protect the environment for future generations.”
But conservation charities want the government to go further.
“We really need to see the plastic pollution tap turned off,” says Amy Slack, head of campaigns and policy at Surfers Against Sewage.
“What we are seeing now are essentially bathwater policies, and we need to see these policies implemented in a co-ordinated strategic approach across all the nations of the UK.”