The EU decides to reduce disposable plastic items and ban them from 2021.
On 27 March, the EU parliament voted in favour of a ban on the use of disposable and single-use plastic items. This is seen as an important step to counter the plastic pollution of our environment.
85% of the trash in the oceans is made of plastic, and most of it is disposable items
Disposable items or single use plastic items are plastic straws, drink stirrers, take-out food containers, bottle caps or single-use cutlery and plates.
These plastic items are a threat to marine life but the most dangerous are the trillions of tiny plastic particles pollution our oceans. Some are smaller than 5 millimetres or 1/5 Inch in diameter and thus swallowed by fish that later might end up in meals on our table. Plastic thus lands our food chain.
Experts fear that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish! Most of the plastic items enter the sea via the big rivers and streams in the most populated regions in the world.
These most polluted rivers are the Yangtze, the Indus, Yellow River, Hai River, the Nile, the Ganges, Pearl River, Amur River, the Niger, and the Mekong.
The decision to ban single-use plastic was driven to a large part also by China. China stopped importing waste from Europe last year. Most of the waste in Europe was previously sent to China to get recycled there! And Chinese rivers are amongst the most polluted waters in the world.
The ban backed by the EU parliament and the ban of single-use plastic items will come into effect by 2021.
The use of plastic bottles also is to be reduced by 90% until 2025.
source: Deutsche Welle
image: Mr. Anaked/shutterstock.com