From the Mountain Xpress

Monday,  Sept. 18, 2023

 

"Dear Readers,

"It’s definitely not in the bag yet, but a debate on banning single-use plastic bags has been gaining traction in local government meetings lately.

Last week, the Town of Black Mountain unanimously passed a resolution showing support for an ordinance that would ban them in Buncombe County. The Town of Woodfin recently passed a similar ordinance. 

Additionally, a survey conducted this year by the City of Asheville showed more than 80% of about 7,000 survey respondents support the ban, according to Anna Alsobrook, watershed science and policy manager for [the environmental group] MountainTrue. City staff plan to make recommendations to City Council on how it should proceed sometime this fall, according to the city’s website.

Critics have said a ban would be too expensive for retailers and would be disproportionately burdensome to those in lower income brackets.

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, meanwhile, have yet to publicly discuss the sample ordinance, which was drafted by MountainTrue, but the environmental nonprofit plans to bring the issue directly to commissioners during the public comment period at its meeting Tuesday, Sept. 19, Alsobrook said.

Before the meeting, MountainTrue is hosting a rally in Pack Square to garner public support for a plastic bag ban, starting at 4 p.m.

After a meeting of the Environment and Energy Stewardship Subcommittee Sept. 15, of which three commissioners are members, Alsobrook said some are more comfortable than others with the prospect of a ban. She is hopeful that a strong showing on Tuesday will show commissioners that the public is supportive."

— Greg Parlier, reporter
gparlier@mountainx.com

Excerpts from England Banning Single Use Plastic cutlery and dishes (announced Jan 14, 2023)

 

England Is Banning Single-Use Plastic Cutlery and Plates
A public consultation revealed 96% approval for the decision.

England is set to ban single-use plastic cutlery and dishes. The announcement, which will be officially made on January 14 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), follows a three-month consultation that gathered public opinions on items such as plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks, and extruded polystyrene.1

The idea of a ban was "backed by overwhelming public support," according to the Daily Mail, and Greenpeace UK reports that 96% of the 51,000 consultation participants said they'd support a ban on all of the items under consideration.23

It's estimated that the average person in England uses 18 disposable plastic plates and 37 pieces of disposable plastic cutlery every year, with a mere 10% of that getting recycled.4 This works out to 1.1 billion plates and 4.3 billion pieces of cutlery being used annually, most of which get tossed in landfill after their fleeting usefulness. Litter relating to takeout food and drink packaging dominate plastic waste in the ocean, according to a 2021 study.5 So it seems logical to want to tackle this issue.

The ban will apply to restaurants, cafes, and takeout foods, but not stores or supermarkets, where such single-use plastic is considered to be "primary packaging" and will be addressed by other means. 

Richard Swannell, interim CEO of WRAP, an NGO working to reduce waste, said his organization is in full support of this announcement.

"[It] marks important progress in the wholesale removal of problematic and unnecessary plastics that can end up as plastic pollution. WRAP is working with UK businesses to meet ambitious targets in this important area, and our latest results show an 84% reduction in problematic and unnecessary single use plastics by our UK Plastics Pact members since 2018. We're delighted to see these efforts being backed up by regulation, which will accelerate efforts to keep plastic out of the environment."

This ban follows another that was implemented in England in October 2020, banning plastic straws, stir-sticks, and cotton swabs with plastic stems. Scotland's single-use plastics ban came into effect in August 2022 and similar laws were approved in Wales this past December.

by Katherine Martinko  Published in Treehugger Newsletter on Jan. 13, 2023

Article Sources

1. Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. "Single-use plastic: banning the supply of commonly littered single-use plastic items." Gov.uk.

2. Ellicot, Claire. "Ministers will finally ban throwaway plastic plates, cups and cutlery killing our wildlife by the end of the year." Daily Mail.

3. Sedgwick, Alexandra. "Public tells government to ban polluting single-use plastics now." Greenpeace.

4. Treisman, Rachel. "England will ban single-use plastic plates and cutlery for environmental reasons." NPR.

5. Morales-Caselles, Carmen, et al. "An inshore-offshore sorting system revealed from global classification of ocean litter." Nature Sustainability, vol. 4, June 2021, DOI:10.1038/s41893-021-00720-8

6. 
   

And another article (first printed in 2020) in the same newsletter reminded me that:

 France banned plastic shopping bags as part of a 2015 energy bill, and a ban on plastic produce bags went into effect in 2017.