Compliance Update: Offence: Supply of a single use plastic straw to an end user (Reg 4)
The Environmental Protection (Plastic Straws, Cotton buds and Stirrers) (England) Regulations 2020 brought into force the ban on 1st October (today) after the deadline was postponed from April 2020 due to COVID-19.
This does not mean the end to all plastic straws in the UK as there are exemptions that apply to retail pharmacy, catering, medical purposes and prescribed premises.
In addition those tricky little straws attached to a drink pack are exempted from these regulations as they are deemed to be packaging. Hopefully this legislation will reduce the littering and waste issues as the UK Government estimated that in the UK we use 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers and 1.8 billion plastic-stemmed cotton buds each year and that cleaning up the effects of littering costs local Government millions of pounds every year